BELGRADE, March 22. /TASS/. Serbia will never join the anti-Russian hysteria and will not ban Russian media, Serbian Minister of the Interior Aleksandar Vulin said during a meeting with Russian Ambassador to Serbia Alexander Botsan-Kharchenko Tuesday.
"Serbia will never be a part of the anti-Russian hysteria, when property of Russian citizens and the Russian Federation itself is being confiscated, and it will not ban Russian media, expel Russian students from schools and remove Russian writers and scientists from textbooks. A civilization that cancels Russian writers, scientists, freedom fighters, a civilization that rejects everything that the Russian people gave the world would be a very poor civilization. Those who would like to cancel Dostoyevsky have never read that the entire world is not worth [even] one tear of a child, and thus they are able to call for murder of Russian children," the Minister said.
Vulin underscored that Serbia is an independent and self-reliant country who can choose its friends.
"Serbia will never forget that, in 2015, Russia vetoed a Security Council resolution that would have declared Serbian people the first people in history guilty of genocide," Vulin said.
The Minister noted that Serbian police cooperate with Russian law enforcement agencies - police, National Guard and Ministry of Emergency Situations - very successfully. He expressed his certainty that the cooperation between the two countries will be mutually beneficial and thanked Russia for its consistent support of Serbia in its fight for territorial integrity.
Previously, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic called Western attempts to "cancel" Yuri Gagarin and Fyodor Dostoyevsky a consequence of hysteria and insanity that engulfed the world. He made this remark in response to Space Foundation’s decision to cancel the annual "Yuri’s Night," dedicated to the Cosmonautics Day.
Earlier, the University of Milan cancelled lectures about Fyodor Dostoyevsky read by Paolo Nori, a renowned Slav culture researcher, writer and translator. Social media users attacked writer Nikolay Lilin, who currently lives in Italy - author of the "Siberian upbringing" novel, filmed by Italian director Gabriele Salvatores. The La Scala theater fired director Valery Gergiyev, while Anna Netrebko left the Milan theater herself.