On May 9, Aleksandar Vučić will attend the commemoration of the Day of Victory over Fascism in Moscow. The European Union announced that the presence of Putin's parade is not desirable because Russia is responsible for the war in Ukraine. The President of Serbia decided to go anyway
There's a lot on the table. If Aleksandar Vučić, as he announced, goes to Moscow on May 9 for Victory over Fascism Day, it will be his first visit to Russia since he started the war in Ukraine in February 2022 and the first meeting with Vladimir Putin from 2023. He will probably be in the company of the presidents of Slovakia, Belarus, certain countries of Asia and Latin America, at least according to the officials so far.
Another important threat is factored into the whole calculation. Kaja Callas, the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Policy and Association, disclosed that the EU will not look favorably on anyone's participation in the celebration in Moscow, because Russia has started a war in Europe.
Hello, can you reach me?
At the beginning of March, Putin and Vučić spoke on the phone, and the President of Serbia stated that for him it was "a special honor to confirm the visit to the Russian Federation on May 9."
"I will be at the head of the Serbian delegation at the beginning of May at the celebration of the 80th anniversary of the victory over fascism and I will proudly represent Serbia on Red Square," said Vučić at the time.
He confirmed that he is going to Moscow at the same press conference where on April 17 he referred to the report of the Russian intelligence service FSB, in which numerous reports that the Serbian authorities used a sound device to attack the participants of the peaceful and mass anti-Vuvučić protests on March 15 in Belgrade are considered fake.
The American agency AFP wrote that it notes that Vučić did not explain how the FSB came to such a conclusion and whether the Russian intelligence service even investigated the incident that happened in Belgrade. On the same day, the Serbian parliament accepted a new government "full of anti-European ministers, including Minister of Information Boris Bratina, who burned the flag of the European Union and sang: 'We don't want with the EU, we want with Russia,'" adds AFP.
The vice president of the Serbia Center and an expert on European law, Duško Lopandić, explains to "Danas" that the focus of the celebration in Moscow will be the promotion of Vladimir Putin's policy, which caused the biggest war in Europe after the Second World War, which has resulted in hundreds of thousands of victims.
"Europe Day is also celebrated on the same day, so the choice before Vučić is simple - he can choose between Moscow and Brussels-Strasbourg. Considering his policy so far, it would not be unexpected if he goes to Moscow and additionally confirms his fundamental abandonment of the European path and values, as he assures us every day with his neo-radical politics," Lopandić points out.
He says that if Vučić has a place in Moscow, Moscow has no place in Serbia.
Even Orban is not going.
The leaders of China, India and Brazil, as well as Slovakia and Serbia, received invitations to come to Moscow, at least according to the Russian media.
Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico confirmed his departure back in November, stating that he had accepted Putin's invitation. Fico, whose government is seeking to improve relations with Russia, has previously spoken of his desire to attend events in Moscow.
"It is natural that, as the Prime Minister of Slovakia, I have an eminent interest in participating in the official celebration of the victory over fascism, which will take place on May 9, 2025 in Moscow. Therefore, I gladly accepted the official invitation of the President of the Russian Federation to participate in these important celebrations, which I will do," Fico said in November.
According to the available announcements from Budapest, Viktor Orbán will not go to the parade.
What Putin said last year
In last year's speech for Victory Day, Putin accused the West of starting a "real war against Russia" which is a reflection of "the obvious recklessness of those who cynically planned a new war against Russia and for that purpose gathered Nazi scum from all over the world."
While Russia does not see any nation in the world as an enemy, the West follows an "ideology of supremacy" that is "criminal and disgusting", Putin said. The West "sows hatred", divides societies, destroys traditional values that "make a man human" and imposes its own rules.
Using the example of destroyed Soviet monuments in Eastern Europe, he "proved" that "the cult of Nazis and their helpers is being built", while the memory of "real heroes" is being erased.
The Ukrainian people are hostages of the "criminal regime and its Western masters" who brought them to power through a coup, Putin said last year on Victory Day.
He praised Russian soldiers on the Ukrainian front as "real heroes" supported by "the whole of Russia."
And he warned the West that "Russia is doing everything to prevent a global confrontation", but that it will not allow anyone to threaten it and that "Russia's strategic weapons are always on alert".
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