Lavrov about Serbia: Russia Hopes the West Won’t Engage in its Color Revolutions

Sergey Lavrov(BETAPHOTO/MILOS MISKOV/MO)

Russia expects the ongoing protests in Serbia to be handled based on the Constitution and the law, hoping that Western countries “will not engage in their color revolutions,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on June 30 in Kyrgyzstan.

At a press conference following a meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the CSTO military alliance, Lavrov said Moscow had “noted the Serbian leadership’s readiness for dialogue with the protesters,” the RIA Novosti agency quoted the Russian foreign minister as saying.

“Western countries would typically try to use certain internal events in different countries to advance their interests at the expense of those countries’ partners. We hope that his time Western countries will refrain from engaging in their color revolutions,” Lavrov stated.

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic thanked “Russian friends” for “closely monitoring” what was happening in Serbia.

Vucic added that power in Serbia would be won in elections, when the authorities called them, and not, as he put it, when “a gang of hooligans” demanded it.

“We will maintain order in the country. I would like to thank our Russian friends for understanding and closely assessing what is happening in Serbia, but I also want to tell them and everyone else that, whatever they organize, however much they pay - it's over. I want to inform them that Serbia has won, and I look forward to continuing cooperation with the Russian Federation,” Vucic told reporters in Seville, Spain, on the sidelines of a UN conference on development financing.