Russian Ambassador Responds to Counterparts: You Have No Right to Lecture Russians 

Alexander Botsan Kharchenko(BETAPHOTO/MILOS MISKOV/MO)

Russian Ambassador to Serbia Alexander Botsan-Kharchenko has told his counterparts, the ambassadors of Canada, Poland and the United Kingdom, that "no one gave them the right to lecture Russians."

"I would advise the ambassadors to redirect their attention to their countries' relations with Belgrade. First and foremost, to find in themselves 'wisdom, trust and memory' and to honestly look at the hypocritical, inflammatory rhetoric of their countries in relation to Kosovo," Kharchenko said regarding a joint op-ed in daily Politika by ambassadors Giles Normand, Rafal Perl and Sian MacLeod, headlined Wisdom, Trust and Memory.

That is "a primitive pamphlet whose headline is completely contradictory to its content," Botsan-Kharchenko said in a reply published in the Nov. 18 issue of the Politika newspaper, adding that "for some reason, the authors of the article do not remember the bombing of Serbia in 1999 on Victory Day, May 9, or on so-called Europe Day, May 8."
In the op-ed for the Nov. 17 edition of the Politika daily, the ambassadors called on Moscow to “immediately change its course” so that the suffering and destruction in Ukraine, and Russia too, would be alleviated.

“Anyone concerned with the future of not only the people of Ukraine but of Russia as well must make the unambiguous statement that the best way to reduce the destruction and suffering is for the Kremlin to immediately change its course,” said ambassadors Giles Normand, Rafal Perl and Sian MacLeod, of Canada, Poland and the United Kingdom respectively.