BELGRADE, September 6. /TASS/. Relations between Serbia and Russia are at the level of strategic partnership and no one will be able to influence this, Serbian Deputy Prime Minister Aleksandar Vulin said.
"Serbia and Russia are strategic partners and nothing can change that. Presidents [Aleksandar] Vucic and [Vladimir] Putin are first of all friends and people who respect each other very much. Don’t try to drive a wedge between them. In the meeting I had with the Russian president, Putin expressed great respect for President Vucic, and I had the honor to convey expressions of sincere and fraternal respect from President Vucic to President Putin," Vulin's press office quoted the official as saying.
"When something happens in Kosovo and Metohija, who to complain to then? Germany, America? No, only Russia always understands us, always on our side, always unconditionally ignores its own interests to help Serbia," Vulin emphasized.
The deputy prime minister pointed out that Moscow has never allowed itself to take steps that would endanger Serbia. "We are a great nation, and great nations do not betray their friends. Russia has never done anything that could harm us, never done anything that would make Serbia have to reconsider its policy towards Russia. If Russia had not held out for all these centuries, do you really think Serbia would have held out? And if Russia had been militarily defeated, dismembered, do you really think Serbia would have survived like that? Do you really think that there would have been a Republika Srpska, Serbia, that the struggle for Kosovo and Metohija would have continued?" he pointed out.
"Yes, we remain strategic partners, we remain allies, and there is not a single reason to reconsider our policy. President Aleksandar Vucic has shown that he is the only free leader in Europe and that he has not succumbed to anti-Russian hysteria. We have not and will not impose sanctions against Russia, we will not change our policy on the issue of military neutrality, we will not become a NATO member state and we will not allow Serbian territory to be used for attacks on Russia," Vulin concluded.