MOSCOW, June 6. /TASS/. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Monday blasted "Brussels puppet masters" for their unwillingness to give Russia a forum in Belgrade to lay out its views on some regional issues."

"We planned to consider a broad agenda: We wanted to talk, of course, about the rapidly developing strategic partnership in our bilateral relations, we also wanted to talk about international affairs, but, apparently, the Brussels puppet masters didn’t feel like giving us another forum so in the capital of Serbia we could lay out, reaffirm Russia’s position on the issue of Kosovo and the issue of Bosnia and Herzegovina," he said at an online news conference on pressing international issues.

He said Brussels didn’t want Russia to express support for Belgrade's initiative to implement the "Open Balkans" project in the interests of improving relations between all the countries of this region. "But now it is obvious to all of us that Brussels, to be more precise NATO and the EU, want to turn the Balkans into their own project called ‘Closed Balkans,’" the minister said. "At least, it’s hard to draw other conclusions in the context of what we are now witnessing.

A Serbian newspaper earlier reported that Bulgaria, North Macedonia and Montenegro declined to allow overflight by the plane of the Russian foreign minister who was scheduled to travel to Serbia. Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova confirmed that Lavrov’s plane wasn’t cleared to fly across the airspace of the countries surrounding Serbia.