Former Serbian President Vučić says in an interview refusal to sanction Russia is the main source of European pressure on him

Former Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić said Serbia’s refusal to impose sanctions on Russia was the issue European officials raised with him most often and, in his view, the main reason many wanted him removed from power.

Vučić made the remarks in an interview with Russian journalist Ksenia Sobchak for her YouTube channel Ostorozhno: Sobchak, published Tuesday, October 20, five days before Serbia’s parliamentary election. Vučić resigned as president on September 27 and is leading the United Serbia list in the vote.

“Believe it or not, sanctions against Russia — that’s absolutely number one,” Vučić said when asked why many people wanted him gone. He said the issue was raised at virtually every meeting he attended in Europe and was even more prominent than his refusal to recognize Kosovo’s independence.

Vučić said European leaders had privately asked him about Russian President Vladimir Putin and acknowledged that contact with Moscow was necessary. “I always answered that to achieve peace, you have to talk,” he said.

Recalling an earlier conversation with Putin, Vučić said the Russian president told him Serbia was free to join NATO if it chose, although Moscow would disagree with the decision and believed it would be bad for Serbs. Vučić said he replied that Serbia had no intention of joining the alliance.

On Ukraine, Vučić said Serbian intelligence had informed Putin that weapons exported by Serbia to third countries could subsequently end up in Ukraine, despite Belgrade not exporting directly to Kyiv. He said such rerouting was common in the international arms trade.

Vučić also defended Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky against expectations that he could simply concede the Donbas, saying: “You have to put yourself in his shoes.”

He separately said a military cooperation framework between Kosovo, Croatia and Albania had been understood in Belgrade as directed against Serbia and had reinforced the government’s decision to strengthen its armed forces.