BELGRADE, September 11. /TASS/. Serbia is independent in what concerns joining or not the anti-Russian sanctions and no decision on this matter can be imposed on it, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said on Monday.

"As for the sanctions, as a sovereign state we make such decisions on our own. And this is what differentiates us from Pristina. Not on the topic of Russia, Ukraine or I don’t know what else, but on the matter of who is a sovereign country and who is not and never will be," he said, commenting on Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti’s statement that Russia and Serbia could not be pried apart without a whip.

"I wonder why someone thinks that they have the right to ask any third persons to use a whip against a sovereign country, especially when they violate the United Nations Charter and infringe upon a country’s territorial integrity," Vucic said.

The Serbian leader said earlier that his country was not ready to impose sanctions on Russia because of its moral principles. He noted that amid the sanctions Russia’s economy was holding up better than anyone expected it to.

Vucic said after a meeting with Russian Ambassador to Serbia Alexander Botsan-Kharchenko on August 28 that Belgrade hoped for the harmonious development of relations with Moscow.