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Russian Foreign Ministry refutes reports about alleged deportation of Russians from Serbia

The Russian Foreign Ministry drew attention to a commentary of the Serbian PM made on October 27 in which he described those reports as misleading
The Russian Foreign Ministry  Gennady Khamelianin/TASS
The Russian Foreign Ministry
© Gennady Khamelianin/TASS

MOSCOW, October 28 /TASS/. The recently appeared media reports about alleged deportation of Russian nationals from Serbia are "absolutely false," the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement released on Friday.

The Russian Foreign Ministry said that the trip of Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev to Belgrade had been pre-planned. Preparations for it started several months ago. "Such events require long and serious preparations," the Russian Foreign Ministry stressed.

"As for reports of some Balkan media outlets and the Russian daily Kommersant that some Russian nationals have allegedly been deported from Serbia, they can hardly be called other than absolute fiction," the Russian Foreign Ministry said.

"We have to note with regret that it’s not the first time that journalists do not pay enough attention to checking and verifying the reliability of information sources and in fact turn into an instrument of information war in the hands of politicians," the ministry stressed.

The Russian Foreign Ministry also drew attention to a commentary of Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic made on October 27 in which he described those reports as absolutely misleading.

Previous reports said that Russian nationals had allegedly been deported from Serbia for involvement in the preparation of terror attacks in neighboring Montenegro during the October 16 parliamentary elections.