Belgrade University under pressure to cut ties with Russian universities

NEWS 08.07.202212:45
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The Belgrade University official in charge of international cooperation said on Friday that there was pressure to minimize or cut ties with Russian universities.

Deputy Dean Ratko Ristic said that Belgrade University’s administration feels that cooperation with Russian universities should continue under cooperation agreements and memorandums on understanding. “We are organizing visits, their students come here and ours go there. There was pressure and some suggestions to minimize of end cooperation but we are only involved in the university aspects of Serbia-Russia relations and we have taken a constructive stand to maintain and promote existing forms of cooperation,” Ristic told Danas daily.

He said that he had received letters from professors in the European Union. “Those suggestions also came from England and Ukrainian universities demanded the abolishing of the Russian Center at the University school of languages and literature. That was formal pressure on our university which we did not react to,” he said adding that nothing similar came from either the authorities or opposition in Serbia.

Danas said that Belgrade University currently has 23 agreements and contracts with Russian universities.