BELGRADE (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 25th June, 2023) As a serious state, Serbia does not support the attempted coup by the Wagner Group private military company (PMC) in Russia, nor did it support a coup in Turkey or any other state, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said on Sunday.
"The Republic of Serbia, as a serious state, would never support a coup in any state, that is, a coup by military means, by armed means using the army ... We did not support it in Turkey, Russia, we would not support it in America, in any other country," Vucic said on air of Serbian broadcaster Pink tv.
The Serbian leader stressed that power must be changed in elections, not in the streets.
Noting that he and official Belgrade were not in a hurry to comment, Vucic pointed to the haste and rashness of Kiev and some foreign politicians in supporting the actions of Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of the Wagner Group.
The Serbian president also said that the coup had foreign support.
"I don't want to say who was involved from the outside, but there shouldn't even be any doubt ... We always have foreign services involved in a myriad of things," Vucic said.
The Serbian leader added that Russian President Vladimir Putin personally stopped the rebellion because no one else would.
On Friday, the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) opened a criminal case for inciting armed mutiny over statements made on behalf of Wagner Group's head Yevgeny Prigozhin. The FSB said that there was a threat of escalation on Russian territory. The Russian Defense Ministry said that social media reports of alleged Russian military strikes on PMC Wagner camps were not true.
Russian President Vladimir Putin delivered a televised address to the nation on Saturday in which he described the actions of the Wagner Group PMC as an armed mutiny and treason, and promised harsh measures against the insurgents.
Later in the day, the Belarusian presidential office said that Prigozhin had accepted Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko's proposal to stop the movement of Wagner troops in Russia and to take further steps to de-escalate the situation. Prigozhin later confirmed the information, saying that the Wagner troops were returning to their field camps.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Saturday evening that the criminal case against Prigozhin had been dropped and that he would leave for Belarus under guarantees given by Putin. The spokesman added that the members of the Wagner PMC who were involved in Saturday's events would not be prosecuted, given their distinguished service during Russia's special military operation in Ukraine.
