Serbs "don't know Russia," says historian

Serbs "don't know Russia," says historian

"Russia is for Serbia like a mirage. We want to go to the EU, but we are trying to maintain a balance whose carrier used to be Yugoslavia, which Serbia cannot take over today," Perovic said during a round table entitled, "Serbia in Russia's geo-strategic positioning," held in Novi Sad.

According to her, Serbia and Russia are linked by the idea of ​​"a great state" and the two countries "use violent methods in order to preserve it," while the Serbian-Russian relations should be viewed "through a scientific approach, rationally, and through different dimensions."

Former Serbian Ambassador to Russia Jelica Kurjak said that Serbia has always had a "problem with identifying" and that Russia has known how to use that state of being "torn."

"Serbia is constantly sitting on two chairs - the EU and Russia, and we think we are very important in this sitting, but in fact we are losing ourselves," she said.

Beta agency reported that Kurjak explained that Serbia is now a conglomerate of political parties that are unable to see the whole country from their narrow interests. A "big problem" in the functioning of the country is that it "never fully implemented reforms, and has either killed its reformers, or they withdrew themselves," she said.

"As is the case with Russia, one 'boss', whatever his name was, has constantly suited us. This unwillingness to step into the new is the essence of both Serbian and Russian identities," said Kurjak.

Economic journalist Dimitrije Boarov also took part in the gathering and assessed from the standpoint of economic policy that "the opinion that we should turn to the Russian market emerged from the rise of pro-Russian ideology and marketing of Russia as an alternative in domestic politics."

"There is more and more advertising of that concept, while facts say something else. Last year, Serbia's export to Russia amounted to 726 million dollars, while in 1990 it amounted to 1.197 billion dollars. And that level of 1990 has never been reached in all this time," said Boarov.

He added that such a large market should not be underestimated, but that Serbia must know that Russia is "on average, a country of poor consumers."

The round table was organized by the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights, with the support of the Open Society Foundation.