BELGRADE, April 20. /TASS/. Serbia understands what Russia is doing in its new territories to protect Russian people, Russian lawmaker Yelena Afanasyeva said in Belgrade on Thursday, following a meeting with members of the Serbian legislature.
"We do understand the Serbian side. We understand the pressure that is exerted on them for not imposing sanctions on Russia, and we are very appreciative of this. It is important for us that our friendly, one might even say brotherly relations are kept up. For its part, the Serbian side also notes that they understand the actions of the Russian Federation that are taking place in the new territories of the Russian Federation. They understand that it is indeed for the protection of the Russian population, people who speak the Russian language, who live in the Russian world. They understand why this is happening, because these people began to be subjected not only to pressure, but also to physical annihilation," said Afanasyeva, who is a member of the Federation Council’s International Affairs Committee and head of a group set up for cooperation between the council and the Serbian legislature. "It seems to me that this mutual understanding makes it possible to keep the dialogue going. When the dialogue is also friendly, it means that the relationship is alive."
"I would like the Ukrainian side, which is now not just behaving destructively, but behaving inhumanely, to understand this. <... > This is the leadership that controls the masses and believes that the Russian people should be exterminated. It seems to me that this is really inhuman not only in relation to those people who until recently were citizens of Ukraine, but also this is inhuman in relation to the whole world. Because today they are wiping people out for their desire to speak the Russian language, and continuing to live in the Russian world, and tomorrow this will spread to the whole of Europe and beyond - Asia, Africa."
On Wednesday, the chairman of the parliamentary group for Serbian-Russian friendship, Igor Braunovich, during a meeting with a delegation of the Federation Council of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation, noted that relations between Serbia and Russia are at a high level, that Belgrade is grateful to Moscow for its support on the Kosovo issue, and that it considers economic and cultural cooperation between the two countries to be important.