On Sunday night, Montenegro, Bulgaria and North Macedonia have forbidden Russian government aircraft from flying through their airspace on the eve of the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia Sergey Lavrov’s announced visit to Serbia.

At a media conference which he held in lieu of the visit, the Minister of Foreign Affairs described the decision of certain NATO countries to forbid his aircraft from flying into Serbia as unprecedented.

The Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs pointed out that something unimaginable had taken place today, as a sovereign country was denied the right to realize its foreign policy.

Lavrov said that by banning his airplane from flying into Serbia, the countries in the European Union and the NATO “have denied Belgrade the right to lead a sovereign policy”.

“We have seen similar hypocrisy earlier, including during the bombing of Yugoslavia,” said Lavrov.

With this act, the West has clearly demonstrated to Russia that it will continue to put pressure on Moscow, using any means available, pointed out Lavrov.

Lavrov said that he was not surprised by the West’s cynicism and that they have clearly shown that they will continue to put pressure and that they are willing to stoop to the lowest means.
“Nobody may manage to destroy our relations with Serbia,” emphasized Lavrov.

“In any case, we will not lose contact. We have invited Selaković to visit Russia as soon as possible. We shall hope that the aircraft he flies with will not be exposed to another shameful punishment from Brussels, which has lost all decency,” he stated.