One day we are ready for everything - for very big compromises regarding Kosovo and to fully participate in sanctions against Russia "when membership in the European Union (EU) is in sight".
This is how the Serbian Minister for European Integration spoke Nemanja Starović in an interview for the Austrian agency APA.
This is how progressive diplomacy usually works. First, they give a statement or an interview to foreign media, so that their readers, like governments and citizens of the European Union, hear what they want, which is that Serbia is ready to compromise and cool down relations with Russia.
However, as soon as this news appears in the domestic media, the ramp immediately follows. Aleksandar Vučić denies his own comrade from SNS.
Two days later, the president of the country declared that Serbia will not impose sanctions on Russia, "because we are not changing our policy, it is based on principles."
Starović is careless - did anyone believe it?
He also said that the Minister for European Integration Nemanja Starović "certainly spoke carelessly" when he gave an interview to the Austrian agency APA where he mentioned Kosovo and the possibility of imposing sanctions on Russia.
"We considered that three and a half years ago when we made a decision at the National Security Council, I personally wrote its text. We will continue with our principled policy of an independent, sovereign state," Vučić said, as if Starović could ever say anything, especially something this important, without the president's approval.
Vučić added that he was "sorry that on the domestic scene there are many who jump to defend Russia faster than they would ever jump to defend Serbia."
Starović was immediately attacked by the Socialist Movement, headed by Aleksandar Vulin, who told Starović that he had to lead state policy and that Serbs "are not a nation of traitors."
