Aleksandr Botsan Kharchenko claims: The West is putting incredible pressure on Serbia

Photo: Tanjug/Jadranka Ilic

Russia's ambassador to Serbia, Aleksandr Botsan Kharchenko, says the West is putting incredible pressure on Serbia because it has not joined sanctions against Russia.

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"We know that from our own information, and from the leadership of Serbia, and that this is completely real, brutal pressure, concrete arm-twisting and attempts to stifle a the country and its own will, completely ignoring its interests," Botsan Kharchenko told the daily Politika.

He said that such behavior seems completely "wild" to Russia, and assessed that the EU, NATO and the United States have taken off their masks and shown their true policy once again.

"We understand very well the incredible pressure the West is exerting on Belgrade and the difficult situation Serbia finds itself in," said Botsan Kharchenko.

He added that Russia highly appreciates the principled line that Serbia maintains in not recognizing and not accepting anti-Russian sanctions.

Speaking about a statement made by Russian President Vladimir Putin, when he linked the issues of Donbass and Kosovo and Metohija, the Russian ambassador said that it is not Moscow's practice to comment on the president's statements and stressed that there is no change in Russia's position regarding the Kosovo issue.

"We do not recognize Kosovo and most actively support Belgrade in international forums, primarily in the UN Security Council," Botsan Kharchenko pointed out. According to him, the claims of the alleged change of the Russian position were invented with the aim of spoiling relations between Moscow and Belgrade and in order to get Serbia to join anti-Russian measures.

Asked whether he ruled out the possibility that linking the issues of Crimea, Donbass, and Kosovo and Metohija could still be part of a diplomatic package, i.e., a trade-off between Moscow and Washington, the Russian ambassador said that this does not exist even in traces, that double standards are obvious and that the West has no arguments, and could never explain its position on Kosovo and Metohija, Crimea, or Donbass.

"We also do not link these issues, they are different contexts and historical circumstances, although Kosovo has set a precedent. We only point out that, unlike Kosovo, referendums were held in Crimea and Donbass where the will of the people was expressed, which served as a basis for recognizing independence and fits into the foundations of international law," Botsan Kharchenko stressed.

He said that there was no referendum in Kosovo and Metohija. "Moreover, the armed conflict in Kosovo had ended almost a decade earlier and negotiations were ongoing, while the people of Donbass have been facing the threat of physical destruction constantly, since 2014," the Russian ambassador said.

(Telegraf.rs)