BELGRADE (Reuters) – Thousands of Serbs waving Russian and Serbian flags and carrying photos of President Vladimir Putin marched via Belgrade to the Russian embassy on Friday, to protest Serbia’s authorities bid to distance itself from Moscow after its invasion of Ukraine.
Throngs of individuals, many from ultranationalist organizations, joined the march from the town middle to the close by Russian embassy, the place they fired sign flares, performed Russian and Serbian anthems and hailed the 2 international locations as brotherly nations.
“I got here to this rally to support Russia and to say a loud and clear ‘no’ to insurance policies of authorities in Belgrade who made a shameful determination to vote against Russia in the U.N.,” stated Mladen Obradovic, a protester.
In latest weeks Belgrade voted 3 times for United Nations’ resolutions that condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and suspended it from the principle U.N. human rights physique. Moscow calls its actions in Ukraine a “particular operation.”
Still, Serbia, which is nearly fully depending on Russian fuel and oil, refuses to impose sanctions against the Kremlin and it maintains common flights to Moscow.
Protesters chanted “No NATO” and “Serbians and Russians are brothers,” and slogans against President Aleksandar Vucic who gained the presidential vote on April 3, whereas his Progressives secured probably the most votes to kind a authorities.
Earlier this week, in a transfer seen by specialists as a departure from army cooperation with Russia, Vucic stated Serbia was eyeing a purchase order of two dozen new and used Western jet fighters.
(Reporting by Branko Filipovic, Writing by Aleksandar Vasovic; Editing by Sandra Maler)
