MOSCOW, December 25. /TASS/. Russian Ambassador to Serbia Alexander Botsan-Kharchenko and Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic discussed the current protests in Belgrade and prospects for developing Russian-Serbian relations at a meeting today.

"I want to emphasize that we agreed to meet some time ago. This meeting was not exclusively related to the events that took place yesterday and a few days ago, meaning the opposition protests, although it happened to be one of the headline topics. We touched upon the prospects for the development of our bilateral relations in sufficient detail," the diplomat said on Rossiya-24 television.

As Botsan-Kharchenko noted, the meeting confirmed that Vucic "is looking ahead, despite [the protest-related] situation, and is reflecting on the implementation of the plans and promises made by his party during the [recent parliamentary] election campaign."

During the meeting, which lasted nearly an hour, Botsan-Kharchenko presented Vucic with a book by the late Anatoly Dobrynin (1919-2010), long-time Soviet ambassador to Washington (1962-1986), titled "In Confidence: Moscow's Ambassador to Six Cold War Presidents" in Russian, in which the Serbian leader is fluent.

Protests in Belgrade

Members of the Serbia Against Violence opposition bloc, who started a series of rallies in front of the Republican Election Commission (REC) building in Belgrade on December 18, tried to storm city hall on Sunday but police officers dispersed the protesters. The protesters used flagpoles to tear down the door and broke windows by throwing stones and beer cans, also destroying video surveillance cameras. By midnight, the police arrived in force in the square near city hall and proceeded to disperse the protesters.

The Serbian president, in turn, warned that the opposition's protests and their provocative statements would have no result, as in the country, "power is changed only at elections." According to him, "no matter what they try to do, there will be no violent change of power." Opponents of the country’s leadership say they are contesting the victory of the ruling party-led coalition in Belgrade's city council elections.