"Russia went to war for Serbia," Moscow conference hears

"Russia went to war for Serbia," Moscow conference hears

He was addressing a conference held in Moscow dedicated to the First World War and the fate of Russian compatriots, TASS reported.

"The majority of Russian citizens had no doubt they were fighting for the right thing, for their country, and their Slavic brothers," Kosachev added.

Immediately after the war, he said, "there was a version according to which Russia was to blame for it, and then the same was said about the Second World War, and these stories are not confirmed by anything."

"Russia was not ready for war and made diplomatic efforts to prevent it," he concluded.

A similar sentiment - that Russia entered an imposed war "to defend a brotherly Slavic nation," i.e., Serbia - was previously voiced by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Addressing the same conference on Thursday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that the world should not forget the lessons of the First World War, while "some countries should not impose their interests on the world."

Russia did not want this war and tried to deter other countries from this fatal step, said the Russian official.

"Then, as now, our country was in favor of strong relations between countries, based on trust and peaceful resolution of conflicts without bloodshed. But others turned a deaf ear and those in favor of war prevailed," said Lavrov.

According to him, "countries of the world" should not be governed by efforts to achieve their current interests while imposing their "exclusivity" and displaying unscrupulous means to achieve goals.

He added that lessons should be learned also from other periods in history when Russia fought against aggression in the global arena, "as it does today."

"Historical lessons require fighting without compromise any manifestation of racism and racial discrimination, xenophobia, aggressive nationalism and chauvinism," concluded the Russian minister.