Đukić: Serbia is a hostage of Russian politics

Serbia is more dependent on Moscow today than Yugoslavia was on the Soviet Union until 1948, Srećko Đukić, a diplomat, professor of economics and member of the Forum for International Relations of the European Movement in Serbia, told Demostat.

The essence of this dependence is ideological, political and personal, Đukić said, adding that Serbia no longer has an alliance with Russia, but is hostage to Russian politics.

Đukić points out that any move on the internal or external front is not a sovereign choice for Serbia, but a choice seen through the prism of Moscow.

Serbia, especially in the last ten years, has left all its energy cards in Moscow’s hands and we are now the most dependent country on Russian gas. They can turn off our taps at any moment, which they have shown and have been showing since 2004, since every third year they turned off the gas to someone in Europe, they have shown that it is not a problem for them, Đukić said.

Djukic agrees with the claim that dependence existed before the Serbian Progressive Party came to power, pointing out that since 2010 Europe has started looking for alternatives to Russian gas, while Serbia has remained deaf to it and has not joined the Southern Gas Corridor, which runs from Azerbaijan to Europe.

The former government made a catastrophic mistake and sold the NIS to the Russians, as well as internal gas and oil reserves, in order to “buy” Russia’s support in the UNSC, Đukić stressed.

On Ivica Dačić as head of diplomacy, Đukić said that this means that Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic is increasing his foreign policy manoeuvrability, as they are known as a tandem that can do slaloms.

After all, it is probably historical justice that they are the duo that will solve the Kosovo issue, Đukić concluded./Nova.rs/