I've been holding out letters of US sanctions: Serbia sets to buy Russian missiles

Russia will hand over Serbia a sophisticated anti-missile system, though the US has warned of sanctions against the Balkan nation in case of such a acquisition.

Russian state news agency T The ASS has said Wednesday that the system “Pantir-S” will be handed over to Serbia “over the following months in accordance with the signed contract”, the AP news agency reports.

US Special Emissar for Western Balkans Matthew Palmer, has warned Serbia last week that buying Russian weapons “risk parameters” for US sanctions.

“Hopefully our Serbian partners will be careful for any transaction of this type”, Palmer said in an interview for Alsat M television, broadcast Koha.net.

Serbia remains Russia's main ally, though it wants to join the European Union. Belgrade has pledged to stay outside NATO and has refused Western sanctions against Russia due to the conflict in eastern Ukraine.

Russia has helped Serbia strengthen its army with fighter planes, strike helicopters and combat tanks, raising concerns in the war-torn Balkan region. During the bloody division of the former Yugoslavia into the 1990s, Serbia has been at war with neighbours Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo.

Serbian President Aleksandar Vuciq said in a TV interview Tuesday that Serbia is buying defence weapons from Russia and that it wants to avoid any American sanctions “or confrontation with America”.

Serbia is arming itself because it is a free country surrounded by NATO member states that we want to be friends”, Vuciqi said, adding that it will not allow Serbia “to be as weak as it used to be in the”.