Serbian Foreign Affairs Minister Ivica Dacic commenting on yesterday’s statements of his Slovenian counterpart Cerar on protests in Serbia, Putin’s visit and EU path, said that Cerar speaks about political crisis in Belgrade and they barely managed to form a government, Vecernje Novosti reported.

“It came as a surprise to me that Miro Cerar did not raise the question about Slovenia’s EU future when in 2016 in Vrsic he stood steady next to Vladimir Putin, or when his counrty, not so long ago, pushed hard to host the Russian President Putin offering their readiness to host a historic meeting with the USA President Trump,” Dacic said.

“Not to mention what a blow to the European values of Slovenia represents the fact that Serbs in Slovenia even today do not have a status of the national minority, although they are the biggest community there, nor they have the right to education in their mother tongue,” Dacic added.

He noted that Cerar’s statements represent an own goal of Slovenia, right before the planned visit of Slovenian President Pahor to Belgrade.

Political analyst Dragomir Andjelkovic termed Cerar’s statement “as a game of Slovenians.”

“Within the EU they have the closest links with Russia, they did not expel Russian diplomats and faced the pressure from Brussels over that. Now they are tying to shift that pressure to someone else, pretending they are bigger promoters of Euro-Atlantic interests than the major EU powers, Andjelkovic said, adding that in this phase, he expects no strong pressure from the EU over Serbia’s cooperation with Russia, since it would be counterproductive.

Speaking before the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Slovenian Parliament, FM Miro Cerar said yesterday that Belgrade needs to clarify its relationship with Russia after the recent visit by Russian President Vladimir Putin, because, according to him, EU members are wondering what is happening in Serbia, when it comes to protests in Belgrade, and, considering Putin's visit - if Serbia is still serious about its European orientation.