Russia has been provoked from outside in an armed conflict since 2014, said Croatian President Zoran Milanovic, he told the journalists, reports Dnevnik.hr.
According to him, such behavior threatens to use nuclear weapons.
"Since 2014, we have been watching 'someone' provoke Russia with the intention of causing this war. It has begun. It's been a year - and we're just now talking about tanks. Why weren't they sent there the first day? All German tanks are being sent there, and even though more than a thousand of the remaining tanks (after the collapse of the USSR) have been destroyed, the same fate awaits these tanks," he believes.
According to the president of Croatia, waging war with Russia is a dangerous undertaking, because Russia will not allow itself to lose and, if necessary, it may resort to nuclear weapons, reports RBC.
He also said that one cannot draw parallels between Serbia's actions in the Balkans and Russia's behavior in the world.
"Kosovo was taken from Serbia. We and the international community. We recognized and supported it," Milanovic reminded. It was obvious, he said, that Russia might do something similar after that. "It is clear that Crimea will never be part of Ukraine again. That's what leading German generals said," Milanovic said, stressing that such talk had been going on even before the fighting began in Ukraine.
This is not the first time Milanovic has criticized the actions of Western countries with regard to Russia. For example, he has previously said that anti-Russian sanctions have damaged Europe and brought Moscow and Beijing closer together. "The question is what damage (the sanctions) will do to us. It is damaging to Europe. We have managed to bring Russia and China closer together. In whose interest is it?" Milanovic said Jan. 20. Also in January, Milanovic said that the U.S. and the North Atlantic Alliance in Ukraine are waging an indirect war against Russia.
Nevertheless, he said, there are "unfriendly relations" between Zagreb and Moscow, although Croatia is not as actively involved in the fight against Russia as some other countries, "which are de facto at war."
