Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic declared that Crimea and Donbass belong to Ukraine because he is afraid of losing support in the EU on the Kosovo issue.
Nikita Bondarev, associate professor of the Russian State University for the Humanities, stated this on the radio station “Moscow Speaks,” a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“There are a certain number of EU member countries that do not recognize the independence of Kosovo. These are Spain, Cyprus, Greece, Romania, and Slovakia. If Vucic departs from the principle of supporting the territorial integrity of states and says that Kosovo is Kosovo, but in relation to Ukraine the principle of territorial integrity may not be so fundamental. Oops, Vučić is losing all support within the EU. If he shows inconsistency, both Spain, Greece and Cyprus immediately abandon him, because now they support Serbia not at all out of love for Serbia, but out of love for the principle of the territorial integrity of states,” Bondarev said.
He believes that what is important for Russia is not Vucic’s statements, but the fact that Serbia does not join anti-Russian sanctions.
“Well, think about what is more important for Vučić now: the pro-Serbian faction within the EU, which has been quite coherent for many years in preventing the EU from strangling Serbia, or relations with Russia, which have been and remain good. What is more important for us is that Serbia does not join the sanctions,” Bondarev said.
The expert predicts that Vucic will not change his position.
“If Vučić withstood the hellish pressure that was put on him all last year, especially in October-December, then I think he will withstand it further. It’s physically impossible to put more pressure on him,” Bondarev believes.