Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov met in a closed airspace as he was about to fly out on Sunday to attend meetings in Serbia on Monday. Russia owes it to the West.
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Russia’s invasion of Ukraine led the West to impose a series of sanctions on Russia, and a closed airspace is one of them.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov had several scheduled meetings in Belgrade, Serbia, on Monday, but had to cancel the trip as some of Serbia’s neighbors closed the airspace for the plane that was to take Lavrov to Serbia.
Russia’s ambassador to Bulgaria confirms that the Bulgarian authorities did not allow Lavrov to fly through the country’s airspace.
Montenegro and northern Macedonia have also closed the airspace of the Russian Foreign Minister according to NTB. As the whole EU closed the airspace of Russian aircraft when Russia invaded Ukraine, Lavrov had no other option but to advance.
“Our diplomacy has not yet learned teleportation,” said a source in the Russian Foreign Ministry, according to Interfax.
The Russian spokeswoman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Maria Zakharova, complained on Italian TV on Sunday that several countries closed the airspace.
–– The countries bordering Serbia have closed the only route the plane could take to Serbia. The Russian delegation had plans to hold meetings in Belgrade, while the EU and NATO countries have closed their airspace, the spokeswoman said, according to CNN.
Serbia has signed a new gas agreement with Russia, and is not part of the sanctions against the country.
Lavrov was scheduled to meet with Serbian President Aleksandr Vucic and the agenda for the meeting for discussions on supplying Serbia with Russian energy.
This will not happen, but Vucic has previously said he will meet the Russian ambassador on Monday at 10 am.
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