Vucic with Ambassador Harchenko, Dacic goes to see Lavrov, Vulin’s socialist resolution on Serbia’s BRICS entry

With all the investments made by the EU and the West, which far exceed the funds coming from the Russian Federation, the expectation that Serbia will renounce Russia is nil. Or as the right-wing elite in Serbia would say – it would be an act tantamount to suicide.

And that is why he has not ruled out energy dependence on Russia.

Decades of propaganda based on distorted facts have undoubtedly achieved their objective, and Russia is therefore, in the eyes of the majority of Serbian citizens, the mother and the West the stepmother.

It is very possible that the Serbian authorities are under much more pressure and blackmail from Russia not to give up the ‘brotherly alliance’ than the pressure from the West and the EU to make clear demands of Serbia.

That Russia is an intransigent ally is also demonstrated by the behaviour of the Russian ambassador to Serbia, Alexander Bocan Harchenko, which, as is often said, goes beyond diplomatic boundaries.

It is well known to the public in Serbia that members of the Serbian ruling elite often go to Harchenko for meetings and advice, and that the Ambassador receives instructions from his superior in the Kremlin in a special room of the embassy at 34 Deligradska Street.

Vucic attended a briefing with Kharchenko yesterday, just days after meeting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Athens. Contrary to the photo from Athens of a grim expression on his face with Zelensky, he was all smiles yesterday in Belgrade in the company of Harchenko.

“Serbia continues harmonious relations with Russia,” the Serbian President said after his conversation with Harchenko, alongside a photo posted on his official Instagram account buducnostsrbijeav.

Russian media also reported the news. Gazeta writes that the Serbian President and the Russian Ambassador confirmed the direction of the countries’ harmonious development.

“The two sides discussed regional and global problems. We also discussed a number of bilateral issues and confirmed our intention to continue to maintain harmonious relations with the Russian Federation,” Gazeta reports.

In their report, they say that Vucic refuted claims by his opponents that his attitude towards the Russian Federation has changed.

“He stressed that he regularly faces pressure and demands to change Serbia’s policy.”

Gazeta recalls Vucic’s earlier statement that he expects increasing foreign policy pressure on the country and attempts to isolate Belgrade on the world stage.

Earlier, the newspaper notes, the Serbian authorities had described the West as powerless in the face of the Russian Federation in Ukraine.

On the same day and at almost the same time, the Russian news agency RIA Novosti published a text saying that the First Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of Serbia, Ivica Dačić, intended to visit the Russian Federation by the end of the year and meet his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov.

“I will have to visit Moscow by the end of the year … We will not talk about anything other than our bilateral relations, and on the intergovernmental commission I will of course meet my colleague Sergey Lavrov. If Sijarto (Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Sijarto) can go to Moscow, why can’t we”, Dačić said.

According to RIA Novosti, Dačić is co-chair of the intergovernmental commission for economic and scientific cooperation with the Russian Federation.

Meanwhile, two MPs of the Socialist Movement (part of a coalition with the SNS), whose leader is Aleksandar Vulin, head of the Security Information Agency (BIA), against which the US recently imposed sanctions, submitted a proposal to Serbian Parliament Speaker Vladimir Orlic for the adoption of the Resolution on Serbia’s accession to BRICS.

“Aware of the fact that the world we live in is irrevocably changing, we express the need to open a broad social dialogue before the public of the Republic of Serbia on the undeniable fact that the so-called European path of Serbia has a clear alternative, embodied in the process of integration into the BRICS organisation, as the most topical global economic-political integration process at the moment,” the Resolution reads.

It says this would reaffirm Serbia’s commitment to the establishment of a more equitable world order based on unconditional respect for international law and would “limit the decades-long hegemony of the West and bring more security and stability to the world”….

They ask the Serbian government to ask BRICS to become an observer state within 30 days of the resolution’s possible adoption, to set up a ministry to join BRICS and to adopt a specific strategy for this.

The resolution would oblige the President of the National Assembly to call for a referendum on the issue.

A similar idea was recently expressed in an interview with Russia’s Izvestia by Zoltan Dani, a member of Dacic’s Socialist Party of Serbia in the Serbian Parliament, who stressed that such a proposal should be tabled in the Serbian Parliament, “especially since this is a multipolar global politically integrated system that offers great opportunities for bilateral international relations.

Dani went one step further and hinted at the possibility of Serbia recognising Crimea and the Donbas as parts of Russia.

Asked about the possibility of Serbia carrying out a military operation against Kosovo, Dani replied, “The Serbian army is responsible for protecting the sovereignty and integrity of the Republic of Serbia.” At the moment, we consider that part of our country is occupied, with the support of the NATO pact. As I said, we are trying to find a peaceful solution, but we do not know how long it will take. “The red lines are getting closer”, concluded Dani./The Geopost/