During his visit to Belgrade Russian State Duma Speaker Sergei Naryshkin called for the use of history to save the world from a new catastrophe.
On May 5 a delegation of Russian parliamentarians headed by
Naryshkin met with Serbian parliamentarians. Naryshkin thanked his
Serbian colleagues “for a very frank and open talk on issues relating to
our inter-parliamentary cooperation and on issues relating to the
interstate relations between Russia and Serbia on key international
policy issues.” He also said the meeting participants “had a detailed
discussion on the causes of the deep crisis in Ukraine.”
“One of the most important things today is to save the world from a
new catastrophe and new lines of conflict using historical truths and
common historical memory,” Naryshkin said on May 5 at a roundtable
organized by the Russian Historical Society entitled “Russia and Serbia:
Common Memory and Brotherhood of Nations.”
“The people of Serbia and Russia have a lot in common in their
language, history, culture, and also common spiritual values,” he said.
Naryshkin gave the example of Ukraine, where “radical activists have
been re-writing the history of Ukraine for several years now, intimidate
and insult Great Patriotic War veterans, destroy monuments and justify
Nazi collaborators, and even reward them.”
“We warned about the danger and it has now come. It’s a pity that few people heard our words,” he said.
Naryshkin said that even the history of WWII is sometimes falsified.
“Some people want to shift the blame from the aggressors to the
victims,” he said.
At the same time, he reiterated that “NATO aggression against
Yugoslavia,” when “Belgrade and other Serbian cities were bombed 15
years ago” outraged Russian society and “became a historical divide” in
people’s attitude to the Western policies.
Naryshkin also thanked the Serbian public,” who generally agree with
Russia on the events of the current deep crisis in Ukraine.”
