RIA Novosti: Russia to Help Serbia Become Independent Regional Center

Sergei Lavrov (BetaPhoto/Milos Miskov)

Russia must not “only try to make Serbia its European outpost, but rather help it become an independent power center in the region,” RIA Novosti said in a June 8 comment on a visit to Belgrade by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, canceled as Serbia’s neighbors had decided to reject an overflight request for the minister’s plane.

Under the title “The Balkans – a new front opening in the war with Russia,” the agency has pointed out that the European Union (EU) cannot step up the region’s accession due to the problems that have emerged as relations with Moscow were severed. The agency goes on to say that the mood within the Union is even more important, because the people there “are not exactly thrilled to have another batch of the Balkanites” clashing with each other.

RIA Novosti also suggests that “Russia “must not only try to make Serbia its European outpost, but rather help it become a powerful, independent regional center.”

“Yes, a relative power center, the one that could last until global changes produce a new balance of power in Europe and globally. During the three centuries of our active relations with Serbia, we have experienced so much turmoil together and separately that there’s no reason not to belie that from this crisis, too, we’ll find an honorable way out, stronger than we were when it broke out,” the agency says, concluding: “Lavrov and Putin will arrive in Belgrade, that’s for sure.”