site.btaPresident Vucic Thanks Russia for Its Stance against Protesters in Serbia

Serbia's President Aleksandar Vucic thanked Russia for its stance against protesters in the country and warned official Belgrade about the possibility of an alleged “colour revolution”, local media report.

“We thank our Russian friends for noticing this, we thank Sergey (Lavrov, Russia's foreign minister - ed.) for understanding it so well and thank you to the rarely honest Russian analysts who noticed one thing - Vucic is a tough cookie,” the Serbian President said in Seville, Spain, where he was attending a UN conference.

Earlier in the day, Sergey Lavrov told Russia's state-run TASS news agency that Moscow was monitoring the situation in Serbia and was “interested in calming this unrest, based on the constitution and laws of this friendly country.” 

“We will maintain order in the country, thanks for the attention of our Russian friends, but I want to tell them and tell everyone else that whatever they organize, however much they pay... it's over. I want to inform them that Serbia won and that I look forward to continued cooperation with the Russian Federation,” Vucic added.

Saturday's anti-government rally in Belgrade was attended by about 140,000 people, according to organizers, and fewer than 40,000, according to the Interior Ministry.

According to Serbian Interior Minister Ivica Dacic, quoted by TANUG, 48 police officers and 22 citizens were injured in clashes during the protest, 77 persons were detained and 38 of them were placed under arrest.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov was also quoted by Sputnik as saying that Moscow did not rule out the possibility that technology had been used during the protests in Serbia to provoke “colour revolutions”.

He added that Russia has no doubt that the Serbian leadership will succeed in establishing law and order in the country as soon as possible.