Russia "doing everything to prevent European war"

Russia "doing everything to prevent European war"

BELGRADE -- Russia is "doing everything to prevent a European war," Russian Federation Council Committee on Foreign Affairs Chairman Konstantin Kosachev has said.

"Our contribution to the Minsk Agreement and our work with the rebels in the southeast of Ukraine is a clear effort to prevent a war," Kosachev, who was in Serbia for the country's Statehood Day celebrations, told the daily Politika, and added:

"But for us, NATO's enlargement will always remain unacceptable, because it divides Europe and provoke conflicts, threatens to turn into a cold or a hot war."

Asked to comment on Serbian-Russian relations, Kosachev said they are "under enormous pressure."

"Above all under pressure of circumstances. And, of course, under pressure from those who do not like close Russian-Serbian relations and friendship. There is a geopolitical project managed by the United States that proclaims Russia to be a problem, a challenge, a threat, even greater than radical religious terrorism,'' explained Kosachev.

He stressed that the United States was working persistently to create and exaggerate any problems between Russia and Serbia.

"They are interested in every sphere of our cooperation, including energy security,'' said Kosachev.

"There was work to place a maximum number of obstacles on the South Stream project - political, economic and purely bureaucratic ones. I must say with regret that some countries that were in the pipeline's route, including Serbia, long watched this from the sidelines, as something that does not concern them."

"In previous years I have had the opportunity to hear from the Serbian friends that they want South Stream, but that...