BELGRADE, October 15. /TASS/. Serbia is not going to impose sanctions against Russia, Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic said ahead of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s visit to Serbia.

“Nobody can order Serbia to ruin its relations with the Russian Federation,” the prime minister said in an interview with Mikhail Gusman, First Deputy Director-General of TASS.

“The Serbian and Russian peoples are very close, we have a lot of joint projects,” the prime minister said. “We have a lot to do together in the future, and I want to say that Serbia is a free and independent state, that Serbia is on the European path, but it has not and won’t impose any sanctions against Russia,” Aleksandar Vucic said.

“I am a person who tries to lead the Serbian government in a rational manner, doing things that are in the best interests of the country,” he said.

“I am not concealing from our Russian partners that we are following the European course,” the prime minister said, noting that he had never felt “pressure” from the Russian leadership.

Vucic said most of the Serbian people had “historical, cultural and religious ties” with the Russian people. He said the developments in the southeast of Ukraine were a heavy experience for the Ukrainian and Russian peoples.

“Believe me that the Serbian people experience this together with all Slavic nations. We hope for peace,” he said.