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Opinion
May 11, 2018 www.intellinews.com I Page 25
the President of a country, which in its majority supports Russia, due to a long history of cultural and security ties. As a shrewd politician he needs to be careful about his reputation with his core voters and walk a fine line that puts Serbia first and the national interest above all else. The simple fact is that in doing precisely this, he has practically no other choice than to maintain good relations with Russia, considering the historic closeness between both countries and the fact that a majority of the population of Serbia holds warm and friendly feelings towards Russia.
Serbia is a "battleground state" between East and West, characterised by a front line struggle to control soft power and influence. In the midst of all this, Serbia’s national strategy is still nevertheless directed by its own regional and geopolitical interests rather than subservience to Russia.
So Vucic has every right to feel frustrated that there is a generally perceived notion that he is under the total influence of Putin, although to the contrary he is resisting Russian pressure on a number of issues, such as for example his quiet but persistent refusal to grant diplomatic immunity to workers in the Niš humanitarian centre (which some analysts view as a power- projection vehicle for Russia).
The case of his handling of the controversy over the Niš humanitarian centre is a good example of how Vucic is performing a finely judged balancing act between the West and Russia. Serbia has been under constant pressure from Washington and Brussels to close the Centre, and from Moscow to accord diplomatic status to the staff of the Centre.
But faced with pressure from all three parties, Vucic has consistently said that the status of the Russian-Serbian Centre in Niš is a question for the Government of Serbia to decide on, indepen- dently as a sovereign state, and without external influence. In politely declining the Russian re- quest for diplomatic accreditation, when he met with President Putin in Moscow in December of last year, Vucic said on the record to the press, that this was not an easy issue for Serbia. "I believe that nobody would like to be in my skin. I count that our Russian friends will have the pa- tience to hear our arguments, in accordance with our independence and sovereignty”
Putting “Serbia First” means that Vucic will have to maintain his high wire balancing act between East and West, on the one hand delivering on Serbia’s reform programme demanded by Brus- sels to progress the EU membership perspective, whilst on the other still sustaining the entente cordiale between Belgrade and Moscow.
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