Lavrov Visit to Serbia ‘Timed to Coincide With Elections’

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov will start a visit to Serbia on June 18, according to his Serbian counterpart, Ivica Dacic. The visit appeared timed to coincide with the end of the election campaign in the strongly pro-Russian country.

Dacic announced the visit on Sunday during a rally by his Socialist Party in Belgrade. There are no official confirmations yet on either Serbian or Russian ministerial websites, however, and Serbian officials did not respond to questions by BIRN on the visit by the time of publication.

President Aleksandar Vucic met the Russian ambassador to Serbia, Alexander Botsan-Kharchenko, on Sunday. According to the press release, the diplomat invited Vucic to attend the postponed Victory Day parade in honour of World war II in Moscow on June 24. It said the two of them, "expecting the arrival of a high-ranking Russian official in Belgrade soon, discussed bilateral relations between Serbia and Russia, as well as the issue of Kosovo and Metohija".

Russia is a close ally to Serbia on the issue of the mainly ethnic Albanian former province that declared independence with Western backing in 2008.

Lavrov's visit was previously planned for March 24, timed to coincide with the anniversary of the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia in 1999, which forced Serbia to relinquish control of Kosovo.

It was cancelled due to the situation with COVID-19. Serbian news agency Tanjug reported that the visit was due to include a ceremonial handover of a page of Miroslav's Gospel, which is kept in St Petersburg. The 12th-century manuscript is the oldest preserved illustrated Serbian Cyrillic manuscript.

Dacic has now announced that Lavrov will be in Serbia on June 18 and 19. Parliamentary elections in Serbia are due on June 21.

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