With the message “Russia wins in creating a more honorable world”, a rally in support of the Russian invasion of Ukraine was held in Banja Luka, organized by the Serbian-Russian Bridge Association, and announced by the Night Wolves motorcycle club, whose members participated in yesterday‘s rally.
Zdravko Mocevic, president of the “Serbian-Russian Bridge” association, said that the gathering was organized in order to express “maximum support for the Russian people in the fight to preserve world civilization.”
”I think we will agree that this is not that war and that Russia and Ukraine are not in conflict, as they call it in the West, but Russia’s war against the forces that occupied the world and threatens its complete destruction, ” said Mocevic.
He noted that “the Serbian people will never join the NATO pact and the European Union (EU) as it is now”, accusing them of bringing “a revival of Nazism, crime, unemployment, and extremism” instead of progress.
Messages about the alleged “denazification” of Ukraine have been sent by Russians since the beginning of the war on February 24th. Hundreds of citizens of this country have lost their lives in the shelling of Ukrainian cities so far. The International Criminal Court said that it would investigate numerous allegations that Russia committed war crimes in Ukraine. EU countries, along with the United States (U.S.) allies and others, have imposed sanctions on Russia over the invasion. At the beginning of March, the General Assembly of the United Nations (UN) adopted a resolution, which was also voted for by Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), in which it condemns the Russian attack and calls for the withdrawal of troops and a ceasefire.
“Meeting of brotherly love”
The “Serbian-Russian” bridge used to put up posters in Republika Srpska (RS) against NATO and BiH’s joining this military alliance.
Members of the Russian motorcycle club “Night Wolves” also joined the rally in support of Russia, and at the end of February,they started with a series of announcements in which they support the Russian attack on Ukraine. Russian President Vladimir Putin is an honorary member of the club based in Russia.
During the past week, their president, Goran Tadic, also invited people to this gathering, which was originally announced for March 9th.
”This is a gathering of brotherly love, brotherly support for Russia and Russian President Vladimir Putin, a man who restored honor and dignity to the Russian and Serbian people, ” said Tadic, who, as he told to BIRN BiH, became president of ‘Night Wolves‘ in 2020.
Tadic’s company “New Energy”, while he worked as a driver for Petar Djokic, Minister of Energy and Mining of RS, received a concession worth three million marks from this ministry for the construction of a small hydroelectric power plant near Han-Pijesak, which BIRN BiH mentioned earlier.
Petar Djokic was present
This company did not fulfill any of the three deadlines from the contract it received, but the Ministry did not terminate the contract, nor did the company bear the consequences due to the delay.
Minister Djokic and Dusko Milunovic, Minister of Labor, WarVeterans’ and Disabled Persons’ Protection, who is also an honorary member of the motorcycle club and the author of the anthem in RS, also attended one part of yesterday‘s gathering.
“Night wolves” are considered one of the important ways in which Russia is expanding its influence, and the president of this club, Alexander Zaldostanov called the Surgeon, has been banned from entering at least two EU countries, as well as the U.S., Canada, and BiH.
While answering the question of the journalists about the participation of the members of the “Night Wolves” in the war in Ukraine, Tadic said that the members of the department of this club who are in Donbas are at war.
”It’s normal for them to fight there. Here, too, athletes, politicians, and musicians fought in the war. All people were involved in the war, so I do not see what is disputable that the people who live there are also involved in the war, ” explainedTadic.
A support rally organized by ”Night Wolves” was also held in Trebinje in early March, while members of the branches of the Russian motorcycle club attended rallies in Belgrade and Podgorica, as BIRN BiH previously reported.
“Ukraine is a Russian country”
The writer Zoran Kostic also addressed the gathering, saying that Ukraine is nothing but a Russian country and that what Russia is doing should have ended in 1945, adding that this is the liberation of Europe from Nazism, which is important to Serbs.
”No one has seen 15 thousand killed and many more, it will be obvious after this military operation in Ukraine. No one has seen Russian victims in Donetsk and Luhansk,” Kostic stated, adding that he prayed that the people of Russia and Ukraine would reunite in unity, in unity after “this liberation campaign of Russia in the area that was turned into Anti-Russia.”
Dane Cankovic, president of the “The Choice is Ours” movement, said Russia had waited a long time to protect its compatriots in Ukraine, even though its national security was threatened.
”Russia has been patient, and now it is carefully conducting a special military operation in order to reduce the number of civilian casualties, and it is being chased for that. Many fascists and Nazis are trying to present Russia as the world’s greatest evil, ” said Cankovic, adding that “Russia is the only one at this time capable of leading humanity to create a more just and honorable society.”
The gathering in Banja Luka is one in a series of several similar gatherings being held in Serbia, BiH, and Montenegro, organized by pro-Russian organizations. BIRN BiH previously wrote that numerous right-wing organizations and individuals who lean towards xenophobia or neo-Nazi ideology and who have been denying genocide and celebrating war criminals for years have responded to the rally in Belgrade.
E.Dz.
Source: Avaz