"You shouldn't be helping us," Russian ambassador told

"You shouldn't be helping us," Russian ambassador told

The opposition LSV party reacted by calling on the Serbian government to "distance itself from Chepurin's statements," and the academician's message was similar.

Teodorovic, a former member of the opposition Enough is Enough movement, and one of the founders of the Movement of Free Citizens, said in a tweet that he is "a Serb who writes in Cyrillic" but that he was "convinced Serbia's place was in the EU."

"I ask you kindly both you, and your firefighters in Nis to no longer be helping us. Thank you," Teodorovic said, addressing Chepurin.

Opposition New Party leader Zoran Zivkovic then retweeted the message, adding that he "agreed."

"75th deputy of 24th assistant to deputy"

Russian Ambassador Aleksandr Chepurin said on November 5 that "too much attention" was being paid to a visit to Belgrade by US official Hoyt Brian Yee, describing his actions in Belgrade as being unfair to the Belgrade authorities, Beta has reported.

"I am looking at the photos published in the newspapers. (Russian Foreign Minister) Lavrov on one side, the US envoy on the other. There is a stark difference Lavrov is a foreign minister, and the guest who arrived in Serbia is the 75th deputy of the 24th assistant to a deputy to the foreign minster. These are very different ranks, impossible to compare. This is why the attention paid to the visit was exaggerated," Chepurin said for Sputnik.

Chepurin said "that in diplomatic terms, a visit means a visit by a minister, a prime minister, a president," while Hoyt Brian Yee's trip "cannot be described as a visit, but as travel, or a business trip, or a visit for consultations."

When asked by a reporter who Yee represented, and if he believed that Yee had ever met US President Donald Trump in person, the Russian ambassador said, "No, I do not think that he has ever met with Trump. I do not think that he even met with (U.S. Secretary of State) Tillerson, as they are very different ranks."

"Who does he represent? That is an excellent question, because we know that American society is divided. Does he represent the previous government? Or the new administration? The American elite is divided and one part hates the other. It is absolutely unclear. What we have heard from him is a repetition of what the Americans have been saying for years, using him as or someone else as mouthpiece," Chepurin said.

Yee was in Belgrade on October 23, where he took part in an economic forum, when he said that "states striving for EU membership had to be very clear as to their loyalty, instead of sitting on two chairs." This statement provoked strong reactions from some Serbian officials, before the US diplomat was then received by the president.