Russia, Serbia to expand inter-parliamentary contacts

BELGRADE, March 24 (Itar-Tass) - Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin
said on Wednesday that Russia favoured expansion of Russian-Serbian
inter-parliamentary contacts with an aim to form common stances in the
international arena.
"I think that we need to expand contacts between parliaments and all
the political forces represented in our parliaments," Putin said as he
delivered a speech at Serbia's parliament on Wednesday.
He added that various structures and commissions in the Russian and
Serbian parliaments should establish direct contacts with each other so as
to work more effectively on the European and international tracks, forming
joint positions.
"We would only welcome this step and will give all-round support to
this process at the governmental level," Putin said.
The Russian prime minister noted that in recent yeas Russia and Serbia
had made great progress in developing trade and economic relations but
haven't weakened their political ties.
"For centuries, the people of our two countries, Russia and Serbia,
have had special close relations with each other based on trust," Putin
said. He added that all Russian political parties irrespective of whether
they were represented or not represented in the State Duma shared this
attitude to Serbia. "This is really a national consensus," the premier
went on to say.
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin who is staying in Belgrade on a working
visit met representatives of the bikers' movement in the former Yugoslavia
late on Wednesday. He also saw a football match between the youth teams
"Zenit" and "Crvena Zvezda>.
Putin met the bikers at the city stadium Marakana to where the premier
had arrived together with his Serbian colleague Mirko Cvetkovic.
Six bikers from Macedonia and Serbia met Putin at the entrance to the
stadium. They got acquainted at the bike show in Sevastopol in the Crimea
last year.
Putin and the bikers greeted each warmly. After that they went inside
the stadium. The Russian prime minister was given a very warm welcome. The
fans greeted him with a storm of applause and Russian flags. Putin and the
bikers took their seats in a box for honorary guests and began watching
the match.
The bikers from Macedonia and Serbia represent the Russian movement
"Night Wolves" in the Balkans. They look as flamboyant as their Russian
friends.
One biker, Goran Jovanovic from the city of Nis, told reporters that
almost all the participants in the movement had participated in military
hostilities in the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s. Jovanovic left his
right foot in that war but that doesn't prevent him from going in for his
hobby.
Jovanovic said that the bikers had great plans for holding joint
events with their Russian friends. Last year, the bikers held a joint tour
to places of the 1999 NATP bombings of Serbia. They laid flowers and
wreaths at the graves of civilians who lost their lives in the
bombardments.
"We and the Russian side have an idea to organize a bike show in 2014
devoted to the centenary anniversary of the outbreak of WWI to commemorate
a Russian expedition corps and the Serbs who died in those years,"
Jovanovic explained.