INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Moscow on Monday furiously condemned the rejection by several European countries of a request for Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov's plane to
pass through their airspace, forcing him to cancel a trip to ally Serbia."The unthinkable has happened," Lavrov told an online news
remaining allies in Europe since the launch of the offensive in late February.Lavrov described the move as "outrageous," insisting that
Moscow's relations with Belgrade would not be "destroyed."He said Moscow had invited his Serbian counterpart Nikola Selakovic to
"hostile actions.""We are convinced that such actions will not be able to prevent our country's continuation of contacts, especially with
friendly countries," Dmitry Peskov told journalists.Lavrov had previously been forced to cancel a trip to Geneva for disarmament talks in
late February, after the European Union closed its airspace to Russian aviation.A Russian diplomatic source told news agency Interfax there
had been no choice but to cancel the visit to Serbia."Russian diplomacy has not yet learned how to teleport," the source said.The chairman
of the foreign affairs committee of the Russian parliament's upper house, Konstantin Kosachev, suggested NATO was pressuring the three
Europe."Atanas Atanasov, co-chairman of the right-wing Democratic Bulgaria, which is part of the ruling coalition, told public BNT
joined the European Union in imposing sanctions in Moscow, despite its bid to join the bloc.The two countries enjoy longstanding close ties
and Belgrade recently signed a new three-year contract to receive Russian natural gas.
