Vucic: withdrawal of peacekeepers from Kosovo is not a reason to support sanctions
The withdrawal of the Russian peacekeeping contingent from Kosovo and Metohija in 2003 is not a reason for Serbia to support sanctions against Russia, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said, adding that he does not fully understand the reason for the withdrawal of the Russian military at that time.
Biljana Shahrimanian-Obradovic, a representative of the NGO Center for Strategic Analysis, called on the Serbian leader several times on TV Pink on Monday night to support Western sanctions against Russia, arguing that Russia supported international sanctions against Yugoslavia in the 1990s. To this, Vucic responded that it was other politicians in Russia who made the decision back then.
“But I still haven’t got, frankly speaking, a precise answer to the question of why the Russians left Kosovo and Metohija. They were welcomed by the Serbian people as liberators, and then what happened was that they left. And whatever they told you in explanation, and I have heard many explanations, official and unofficial, I have never fully understood what was really the reason,” the Serbian leader pointed out.
According to him, he still has not sorted out whether Russia’s decision was influenced by who was in the country’s leadership at the time or by geopolitical arrangements and mutual concessions between world powers.
“Whether this is a reason for us to impose sanctions against Russia now – I think not. Should we have bad relations with Ukraine because of that. No, I think we should have good relations with Ukraine and with everyone else,” Vucic pointed out.
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