Serbian Ambassador To Moscow Hopes EU To Eventually Lift Russia Sanctions

Serbian Ambassador to Moscow Hopes EU to Eventually Lift Russia Sanctions

Serbian Ambassador to Russia Miroslav Lazanski has expressed hope that the European Union will lift its sanctions on Russia, having recognized the erroneous nature of restrictions

MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 17th October, 2019) Serbian Ambassador to Russia Miroslav Lazanski has expressed hope that the European Union will lift its sanctions on Russia, having recognized the erroneous nature of restrictions.

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic has pledged that Serbia will never impose sanctions on Russia regardless of any pressure it could face.

"Our president has repeatedly said that Serbia will never slap Russia with sanctions. I expect the EU to acknowledge that imposing Russia sanctions has been a mistake, and to lift sanctions within several years, when we will be already on the threshold of joining the EU. I hope very much that tensions between Brussels and Moscow will eventually reduce. If we give it a thought, imposing sanctions is actually not a policy, this is not policy. This is lack of policy," Lazanski said in an interview with Sputnik.

The ambassador noted that Brussels was making effort to urge Serbia to impose Russia sanctions.

"We're facing a significant pressure every day. We face it every day, as nearly every high-ranking EU official who pays an official visit to Serbia tells us that we should coordinate our policy with EU policy, including on sanctions targeting Russia. But as you see, we have not imposed any sanctions on the Russian Federation," Lazanski concluded.

Russia's relations with the EU deteriorated dramatically in 2014, following Crimea's decision to rejoin Russia and the eruption of the Ukrainian conflict. The West has accused Moscow of interfering in Ukrainian internal affairs and imposed sanctions on Russia, while the latter has refuted the accusations and introduced a food embargo on the Western nations in response.

Moscow has repeatedly stressed that Crimea's residents decided to rejoin Russia through a democratic procedure, with nearly 96 percent of voters supporting the move in a referendum.