Ruling party official says Russian diplomats involved in anti-Serbia activities

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An outspoken official of the ruling Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) said on Friday that a large number of Russian diplomats have been involved in activities running counter to the Serbia’s interests.

Dragan Sormaz, a SNS MP and a candidate for parliament at the April 3 elections, told Belgrade daily Danas that Serbian security services have information about those activities by Russian embassy staff and could easily react. He cited the example of the violent protests in front of parliament in the summer of 2020, saying that members of the Russian organization Wagner took part in the demonstrations. “That is a fact because we arrested them,” he said adding that he believes this shows that Russian diplomats acted against Serbia’s interests.

“The fact that Russia never bombed us does not mean we should just hand over our state…. We had both good and very bad moments in relations with Moscow and history should not be a deciding element in matters of state,” he said adding that the Russian humanitarian center in the southern city of Nis has not justified its existence. Western officials have been calling the Serbian authorities to shut down that center, claiming it was being used for surveillance and propaganda purposes.

Sormaz, the head of Serbia’s delegation to the NATO Parliamentary Assembly, spoke out recently against the exhibiting and sales of pro-Russian clothing and other paraphernalia on the streets of Belgrade.