MOSCOW, July 11. /TASS/. Russia notes with regret that the anti-Russian attacks by the Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, Ruslan Stefanchuk, at a conference in Belgrade did not receive an appropriate response from the Serbian side, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova, stated.
"We have repeatedly said that representatives of the Kiev regime do not miss the slightest opportunity to turn any event into an anti-Russian 'benefit.' Another such example was the conference in Belgrade. Ruslan Stefanchuk, who was invited there, tried to abuse this platform as much as possible to set the tone and make Russophobic propaganda the core theme of the event," the diplomat said.
"Unfortunately, we are forced to state that the hostile anti-Russian escapades of a figure close to Vladimir Zelensky did not receive an appropriate response from the Serbian organizers. We are convinced that the public of friendly Serbia is well aware of who exactly those who are now in charge on Bankova Street are, consistently destroying the history, culture, and inhabitants of their own country on orders from their European masters," she emphasized.
According to Zakharova, during his speech, hypocritically portraying Ukraine as an innocent victim of "comprehensive Russian aggression," Stefanchuk attempted to "shift the burden of responsibility for all the injuries and wounds that the neo-Nazi regime inflicted on the once-prosperous republic onto Russia." "He accused us of 'enslaving Eastern Europeans' and opposing their European dream. He specifically targeted our ties with Belgrade: saying, it's not for Serbs to look back at Russians from the position of a 'younger brother,'" she explained.
"In general, as usual, the Ukrainian guest's lies were uninventive but verbose — following the primitive templates of Kiev's agitprop: calculated for the compliant omnivorousness of candidates for EU membership," the diplomat stated.