ZAKHAROVA ON THE FUNERAL OF GENERAL RATKO MLADIĆ: SERBS HAVE NO REASON TO REPENT

MOSCOW, SEPTEMBER 9 /SRNA/ - Belgrade's independent policy is troubling Brussels, which is why the EU wants to provoke "national collective repentance" among Serbs, but Serbs have nothing to repent for, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said, commenting on the Union's reaction to the funeral of General Ratko Mladić.

Asked by a journalist from RT Balkan what the EU wants to achieve through its pressure over the funeral of General Ratko Mladić and why it wants to impose a sense of collective guilt on the Serb people, Zakharova replied that Belgrade's independent policy does not fit within the framework of the Euro-Atlantic regime.

"They are giving Brussels no peace. That is precisely why the West is doing everything it can to obtain, essentially, some kind of national collective repentance from the Serbs. Serbs have nothing to repent for.

"But that is exactly how they want to bend the Serbs and Serbia, including over the tragic events of the period of the breakup of Yugoslavia, for which part of the blame lies with the blood-soaked Western capitals. Hence such bloodthirstiness and the cannibalistic attitude toward Ratko Mladić, who recently died within the walls of a UN prison," Zakharova stressed.

She said that double standards had long become the hallmark of the Western "rules-based order," and that this was demonstrated not only by the biased treatment of Serbs in the events of the 1990s, but also today formed the basis of the EU's policy toward Serbia.

"Another example is the situation surrounding the Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija, where the /interim/ authorities /in Priština/, with the tacit approval of the EU, which positions itself as a mediator in the dialogue between Belgrade and Priština, continue to drive out the indigenous Serbian population, approve of, and often themselves provoke, violence against Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija, interference with their property, and even attacks on the facilities of the Serbian Orthodox Church," Zakharova emphasized.

She recalled that, despite the agreements concluded as far back as 2013 and 2015, with written guarantees from Brussels for the agreements between Belgrade and Priština, the Community of Serb Municipalities has still not been established, although it was supposed to provide at least minimal protection of the rights and lawful interests of Serbs living in that Serbian province.

"This destructive, absolutely vile policy is also evidenced by the comment of European Commissioner for Enlargement Marta Kos, which she made regarding the authorities’ decision to bury Ratko Mladić with military and state honors," Zakharova stressed, recalling that Marta Kos called General Mladić a "war criminal," accused Serbs of "glorifying war criminals," and said that this was "contrary to the fundamental values and does not belong in the EU, its member states or candidate countries".

Zakharova said that this was a "wonderful quote, but it was not addressed to the right place, to Ukraine".

"To Kyiv, madam, please. There, an entire pantheon of Nazi scum is being created. Collaborators are being reburied, people who were cursed by their own people, states and laws, and who were declared war criminals - and nothing. I am convinced that if that pantheon is erected in Ukraine, EU officials will come there, kneel down and kiss the coffins and monuments, as they know how to do when they need to, regardless of the historical context," Zakharova said.

According to her, by making such statements, European officials demonstratively fail to notice the honoring of Nazi collaborators from the Second World War.

Zakharova recalled that neither Marta Kos nor any other European official had issued absolutely any reaction to the return to Kyiv and the ceremonial reburial of the founder and leader of the pro-Nazi Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists.

"The fact that the Kyiv regime officially celebrates Nazi collaborators is somehow not contrary to European values in the minds of European officials? I will tell you more than that. Those are European values," she said.

She assessed that such actions and approaches deprived the EU of the moral right to discuss the issue.

"They did not see the most important thing. They did not see how they honor those who killed their ancestors on their own territory. Let them remain silent," Zakharova concluded.