In Serbia, pro-Russia is seen as the winning election stance

By DUSAN STOJANOVIC
Associated Press

BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — Serbia’s pro-Russia president is expected to extend his almost 10-year grip on power when the Balkan country holds national elections on Sunday. Polls predict that President Aleksandar Vucic’s right-wing Serbian Progressive Party will also dominate the parliamentary races. Vucic has boasted of his closes ties with Russian President Vladimir Putin and refused to impose sanctions over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Much of the pro-Russia sentiment among Serbs comes from their hatred of NATO, which bombed their country in 1999 to stop a bloody crackdown on separatists seeking independence for Kosovo. A former foreign minister says Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic said that joining sanctions on Russia would be tantamount to “political suicide.”