Vucic was not invited to Putin’s inauguration, while Dodik was

President of Serbia Aleksandar Vucic has not received an invitation to the inauguration of Russian President Vladimir Putin that is to take place on May 7 in Moscow. Vucic made the statement on April 28 in Belgrade. He did not rule out however that he would receive the invitation soon.

The Serbian president said he found nothing controversial that the leader of the Republika Srpska Milorad Dodik was invited to the inauguration but he was not.

“Serbia is independent in decision making. Serbia’s choice is the way to the European Union, friendship with Russia, China and Turkey,” Beta news agency quoted Vucic as saying.

The Serbian media have been discussing what could make the Kremlin take such a decision. Blic (Belgrade) supposes that the situation is connected with Serbia’s attitude towards giving a diplomatic status to the Russian-Serbian Humanitarian Center in Nis as well as frequent meetings of Vucic with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Serbia is expected to grant the relevant status to the Russian-Serbian Humanitarian Center in Nis under which the staff in Serbia will be working on the same conditions as embassy staff does. In 2014, NATO was given the diplomatic status in Serbia, after that Russia demanded the same for its center. The Serbian government has not decided on the issue yet.