'Russia Day' in Belgrade: Exposing Deep Ties to the Kremlin

While official Belgrade, in talks with Brussels and Washington, tries to maintain the image that it is still on the European path, the view from the Russian embassy says something completely different.

The massive arrival of top state officials and religious leaders at the "Russia Day" reception sends a very clear and worrying message to the West about where the current regime's foreign policy priorities really lie.

This event at the Russian embassy once again exposed the deep and systematic ties between the Serbian political elite and the Kremlin.

At a time when the democratic world is facing the greatest security crisis in modern history, the behavior of Serbian officials demonstrated an extraordinary closeness to Moscow.

With this, Serbia once again consciously turned its back on the European Union's common foreign and security policy.

The Russian ambassador, Aleksandr Botsan-Kharchenko, took this opportunity to repeat well-known messages, saying that "the Russian and Serbian anthems sound like a single symphony."

Although he admitted that the situation from Moscow's perspective is not ideal and that "they do not see the world through rose-colored glasses", he stressed that Russia is working rapidly to protect its interests with "friendly countries", where he undoubtedly sees Serbia at the top of the list.

The presence of the entire head of state at an event organized by a diplomacy under Western sanctions speaks for itself about the so-called "military and political neutrality", and that Belgrade consciously accepts being the main window for Russian influence in the heart of Europe.

The Geopost