Putin calls for Serbia rebuilding Interfax

Putin calls for Serbia rebuilding
Interfax - June 4, 2004

SOCHI -- Friday – The states which destroyed Serbia’s infrastructure should provide the funds to rebuild it, Vladimir Putin said today.

“They destroyed it but are not willing to rebuild it. Belgrade’s bridges are still lying in the Danube River and all European transport companies are suffering losses because of this,” the Russian president told media after talks with Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica yesterday.

Speaking in the Russian coastal resort of Sochi, Putin said that if the international community had had the courage and ability to stop the air strikes on Belgrade, the current crisis in Iraq would be taking an entirely different course.

Criticising attempts by NATO to change Serbia’s political system, the Russian president said that his country’s attitude to any attempts to interfere with force in other the political systems of other countries was well known.

“We are categorically opposed to such attempts,” he added.