German MP: Time to turn my back on Russia

The moment has come that Serbian President Aleksandar Vuciq must turn his back on Russia, and Serbia should not risk ending co-operation with the European Union.

So said German Bundestag deputy Josip Juratovic, adding that Vuciq has built the pro-rus myth against European support.

“Vucciq should not risk ending co-operation with the EU. I am convinced that the moment has come that he will turn his back on Russia and be directed towards the West”, Josipovic, who is chairman of the Parliamentary Group for Co-operation with the Western Balkans, told Serbian media.

He adds that 80 per cent of Serbian citizens believe in pro-rus myth.

When you build a pro-rus myth for years, which today you have 80 percent of pro-Russian citizens, then you're trapped, because it's Vucinqi and the policy you've been following, because they've created such a situation, where Russia is the biggest political and economic partner, not the European Union, he adds.

Juratovic says Vuciq cannot sit down, as he has called, with two chairs and that he must decide whether he wants to join the EU.

“Is it time to decide whether he wants to join the EU? However, facts show that the presence of the European Union is too large in Serbia, only because of political tactics and are not published in media. The EU has so far provided 4 billion euros in development assistance. Two-thirds of Serbian companies' exports go to EU countries. Would Vuciq want to risk all this because of Russia?

German MP stresses that some Serbian media are praising Russia, turning the story back, but that according to him it became a traitor in the matter of Kosovo.

“So far, some Serbian media that have praised Russia, turning Russian history. Russia became a traitor in Serbia overnight because comparing how the West singled out the Kosovo issue, thus loving it with the Crimea and separatist Russian countries in eastern Ukraine”, the Bundestag deputy notes.

He has also spoken of German Chancellor Olaf Scholz's visit to Belgrade and Russian Foreign Affairs Minister Sergei Lavrov's cancelled visit to Serbia.