Vucic speaks with Lavrov

BELGRADE - Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic spoke with Russian FM Sergey Lavrov by phone on Monday to inform him of Pristina's intent of banning Srpska lista from running in the upcoming elections in Serbia's Kosovo-Metohija province.

"I informed Minister Lavrov, as a representative of a UN member state, that, by violating all acts of international public law, Pristina is trying to ban Srpska lista from running in the upcoming elections," Vucic wrote in a post on his buducnostrbijeav Instagram account.

He said they had also discussed the situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Republika Srpska and jointly voiced concern over it, agreeing that full respect of the Dayton Peace Agreement was the best way to preserve peace and stability.

The discussion topics also included US sanctions on Serbia's majority Russian-owned oil company NIS, and they agreed for Serbian and Russian experts to meet as soon as the sanctions were introduced.

Vucic noted that the discussion had been very good and substantial.

"We also discussed all other important matters of our bilateral cooperation, confirmed the friendship between our countries and expressed the confidence that we can raise the level of trade between Serbia and Russia through greater engagement on our part," Vucic wrote in the post.