BELGRADE, March 11, /ITAR-TASS/. Western countries have threatened Russia with sanctions over its stance on the situation in Ukraine but they “will not lead to anything good,” Vuk Draskovic, the Serbian foreign minister from 2004 to 2007, the leader of the Serbian Renewal Movement (SPO) and a writer, said in an interview with ITAR-TASS a few days ago on March 9.

“The authors of this policy of threats against Russia are ignoring the realities of the world in which we live. They are ignoring an irrefutable fact that the future of modern world depends, first and foremost, on relations between the two superpowers like the United States and Russia. This makes cooperation rather than animosity between them imperative. Besides, Russia and the United States are doomed to cooperation and strategic partnership if for no other reason than because these two countries have become the main targets for international terrorism,” Draskovic went on to say.

The former Serbian foreign minister said that everybody who cared for prosperous Europe and the European Union should stop nudging the EU to imposing sanctions against its main economic and strategic partner - Russia.

“Russia’s history is linked to Europe. I refer myself to that category of dreamers and romantically minded people who think alike with General Charles de Gaulle who pronounced his famous phrase about Europe stretching ‘from the Atlantic to the Urals’ in the midst of the ‘cold war’ when the world was divided in two hostile camps - the Western military alliance and the Warsaw Pact,” Draskovic emphasised.

Speaking about Ukraine’s pro-European aspirations, Draskovic said that Ukraine had the right to a European future but added that there could be no European Ukraine built on the policy of hostility and animosity towards Russia.

“The drama in Ukraine flared up shortly after Serbia had finally started negotiations on entering the European Union. And it is unclear to me why our country has not taken its own stance on the events in Ukraine,” Draskovic said.

“We, the Serbs, should not keep silent because we are linked to Russia and Ukraine with our origin, history, culture and religion,” Draskovic went on to say. He said that as an EU candidate Serbia should voice its position on the Ukrainian crisis and urge Brussels to send a clear signal to the new Ukrainian authorities that “Ukraine has the right to choose a European way but that there can be no European Ukraine built on the policy of animosity towards Russia and disrespect for Russian history, culture, the rights of the Russian people and millions of ethnic Russians residing in that great country (Ukraine), including the right to speak the Russian language,” the former Serbian foreign minister stressed.