Kremlin: West wants to "destabilize" Serbia
Thousands of demonstrators storm Belgrade City Hall after the Serbian elections. They accuse the government, some of which was only narrowly re-elected, of electoral fraud. In Moscow, meanwhile, the finger is unsurprisingly being pointed at the West.
Following protests against the parliamentary elections in Serbia, which were overshadowed by allegations of fraud, Russia has accused the West of stirring up tensions in the Moscow-friendly Balkan country. "The collective West's attempts to destabilize the situation in the country are obvious," Foreign Ministry spokeswoman in Moscow, Maria Zakharova, told the state news agency Ria Novosti. She compared the protests in Serbia to those on the Maidan in Kiev, which led to the overthrow of Ukraine's pro-Kremlin President Viktor Yanukovych in early 2014.
Because they disputed the results of the parliamentary elections in Serbia, demonstrators in the Serbian capital Belgrade attacked the city hall on Sunday and clashed with the police. They threw stones at the town hall, smashed windows and tried to break into the building.
Serbia's President Aleksandar Vucic said after the protests that two police officers had been "seriously injured" and that other officers had sustained minor injuries. More than 35 people had been arrested.
Vucic denies electoral fraud
Vucic's Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) had won victories in the early parliamentary and local elections in many cities, including Belgrade. In the capital, however, their success on December 17th was narrow. According to the opposition, this was also only achieved through massive fraud. Election observers and the media reported numerous irregularities. Among other things, buses are said to have brought people from the Serbian part of Bosnia-Herzegovina to the Belgrade arena, where they cast their votes without being entitled to do so.
Vucic denied the accusation of electoral fraud. The Serbian Chief Public Prosecutor's Office in Belgrade announced that several violations of election regulations had been reported to it, including the activities in the Belgrade Arena.
Read also:
- Year of climate records: extreme is the new normal
- Precautionary arrests show Islamist terror threat
- UN vote urges Israel to ceasefire
- SPD rules out budget resolution before the end of the year
Despite Russia's accusations of the West attempting to destabilize Serbia following allegations of electoral fraud, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic denies any such fraud occurred in the parliamentary elections. In light of these claims, tensions remain high as Serbian demonstrators continue to protest and voice their concerns about the election results, drawing comparisons to earlier protests in Kremlin-friendly countries like Ukraine.
Source: www.ntv.de
