Aleksandar Vučić: Pressure on Serbia "indirect, sometimes direct". / 2. Serbia’s president, Tomislav Nikolić, points to world community’s duplicity over Ukraine

BELGRADE -- There has been no "concrete pressure" on Serbia related to the crisis in Ukraine, but "there has certainly been indirect pressure," says Aleksandar Vučić.

"I am a small man, why would somebody pressure me," the Serbian prime minister was quoted as saying on Wednesday.
According to him, "there is no pressure in some brutal manner, like some people think, but indirectly, there certainly is."

But Vučić went on to say that "sometimes, it isn't exactly indirect, but is also done directly" - and explained this concerned "European integrations and some other things."

"But we have simple answers, we respect international law, we do not interfere in the conflicts of others, but Serbia needs to survive," he said, and offered "a concrete example - what would we be doing now if gas was turned off for us."

"In that case it would be cold during the winter, there would be power cuts, and no company undergoing restructuring could operate," said the prime minister, and added that his cabinet will "in one of the upcoming sessions deal with the issue of energy security, because that is one of our problems."
Sources: Tanjug  - B92
13/8/14
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• Mogherini wants Serbia better aligned with EU foreign policy. (Of the 14 EU declarations we have accepted 10 and refused to accept four)

• Serbia among countries Russia intends to buy food from

• Russia joined WW1 because it had to protect Serbia (Vladimir Putin)

• Serbia strongly condemns shooting down of airplane. --"We will conduct a balanced policy, and certainly there will be pressure from various sides" (Serbian FM Ivica Dačić)

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2. Serbia’s president points to world community’s duplicity over Ukraine. (“Serbia was bombed and rocketed (by NATO’s forces in 1999) for alleged excessive use of force")

BELGRADE, August 13. /ITAR-TASS/. Serbia’s President Tomislav Nikolic has expressed surprise over how different the world community’s attitude to similar situations may be sometimes. “Serbia was bombed and rocketed (by NATO’s forces in 1999) for alleged excessive use of force, although not a single shot had been fired in an attempt to restore control of its territory. These days in relation to Ukraine some other rules are at work. The army there is waging a war on its own people, while some countries bomb others and get support for it,” he told the TANJUG news agency in an interview.
About Belgrade’s attitude to the Ukrainian crisis Nikolic said that “Serbia is interested in retaining Russia as its ally in the UN Security Council, but at the same time not to quarrel with the European Union.”
“Serbia is aware that if it takes the side of either party, it will lose one of the two equally precious friends - the European Union or the Russian Federation. Therefore Moscow and Brussels must have respect for our stance,” he said.................................................http://www.ellanodikhs.net/2014/08/serbias-president-points-to-world.html
13/8/14