Vucic greeted Lavrov warmly and put Bosnian leaders to shame

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov visited Serbia, where he met with the country's President Aleksandar Vucic.

Sergei Lavrov inspected the completion of the interior finishing work of the Cathedral of St. Sava, laid flowers at the grave of Patriarch Irenaeus and lit the “Eternal Flame” at the memorial cemetery for the liberators of Belgrade, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.

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In the first part of their visit to Serbia, Aleksandar Vucic and Sergei Lavrov visited the majestic Cathedral of St. Sava, work on which took almost a century, and Russian philanthropists and craftsmen helped to complete.

In particular, the team of Russian and Serbian artists who were involved in the interior design of the dome was led by Russian academician Nikolai Mukhin, who is the main author and creator of the mosaic.

The 15-square-foot mosaic is made of glass and stone and depicts the Ascension, a similar image found only in the dome of the Cathedral of Pečka Patriaršja, the medieval residence of the Serbian patriarchs in Kosovo. Moreover, the mosaic is made in such a way that, thanks to the lighting, the effect is created that the saints are moving.

Sergei Lavrov also laid flowers at the grave of Patriarch Irenaeus, who was buried in the crypt of the cathedral.

After which Lavrov and Vucic proceeded to the Memorial Cemetery of the Liberators of Belgrade, where the Eternal Flame was lit, and the flame was delivered to Serbia from Moscow from the memorial to the Unknown Soldier by a special aircraft of the Russian Ministry of Defense.

After this, Alexander Vucic and Sergei Lavrov held negotiations, during which they discussed political and economic topics.

“Russia and I have a common role in defending the truth about what happened during the Second World War,” the Serbian President commented on the results of the negotiations. “There are various attempts to falsify history, but we will fight this together... We talked about energy, military-technical cooperation, economics, export of our agricultural products, increasing trade turnover.”

The President of Serbia could not pass by incident, which occurred in neighboring BiH, where representatives of Bosniaks and Croats in the Presidium refused to communicate with Sergei Lavrov.

“It’s probably nice to show pride one day, but the next day you’ll have to explain to your people what they got from it,” Vucic noted. – For us, for example, it is insulting not to greet a guest properly, no matter what the reason.

Mr. Lavrov spoke about the military neutrality of the RS, you say every day that you are on the way to NATO, but this is not the position of your entire country. It is not Sergei Lavrov who does not respect your country, you yourself do not respect your country.

You say that Kosovo is independent, but this is not the conclusion of your country, there is not a single body in BiH that would claim this. But after your words, we did not interrupt our relations with you, contacts, even when I was almost killed in Srebrenica.

We have not interrupted contacts and communication with representatives of BiH; on the contrary, I believe that we need to talk, and if you want to say something to a person, say it to his face. It even has a healing effect. They are probably (in Bosnia - ed.) better politicians than me, let them do what they want.

Montenegro says it will not lift sanctions against Russia. And they, too, are probably better politicians than me, but we will not introduce sanctions against Russia. We probably see our interests differently. And I’m proud that Serbia makes its own decisions.”

In turn, Sergei Lavrov conveyed to Alexander Vucic a congratulatory message from Russian President Vladimir Putin, in which the Russian leader congratulated his Serbian colleague on the completion of work on the most iconic and majestic Serbian temple.

“Resolution 1244 (UN Security Council on Kosovo, preserving Belgrade’s sovereignty over the province - ed.) should be the basis of all agreements. We expect the EU to respect the resolution and overcome Pristina's sabotage. Including regarding the commitments made several years ago, including on the issue of the formation of the Commonwealth of Serbian Municipalities of Kosovo. We support any decision that is good for Serbia,” added the Russian Foreign Minister.