The Western alliance mercilessly bombed the Balkan nation for 78-days straight in 1999, with the campaign leaving over 5,000 civilians dead, causing a dramatic spike in oncological diseases, and facilitating the breakaway Serbian region of Kosovo to declare independence from Belgrade.
Serbia's position on NATO remains unchanged, and the country will not be joining the alliance, Interior Minister Aleksandar Vulin has said.
“We have adopted a parliamentary decision, a national defence strategy and all the necessary documents in which we made clear that Serbia will not be a member of NATO,” the official clarified, stressing that joining the alliance would require the country to completely change the entire structure of government.
Vulin also commented on the ongoing dispute between the Western alliance and Moscow, saying that “the Russian Federation is voicing its position –and this position is absolutely clear – that NATO and its approach toward Russia's borders are absolutely unacceptable, problematic from the security standpoint and unnecessary.”
Calling Russia an “ally” to Serbia, Vulin said that in all the years of cooperation between the two countries, Belgrade never experienced pressure from Russia on any issue. “Not once were we told: ‘do this and this, or you will feel the power of Russia.'”
For his part, Yevgeny Primakov, grandson of former Russian Foreign and Prime Minister…
