Croatian President Zoran Milanovic, known for his pro-Russian views, abstained from participating in an international summit dedicated to Ukraine in Zagreb and refused to meet with the Speaker of the US House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi.
This was reported by Euractiv.
The Parliamentary Summit of the Crimean Platform brought together representatives of more than 40 countries and international organizations.
Milanovych explained his decisions with formal reasons - regarding the summit, he stated that he did not see the need to participate, as it was a "parliamentary, not a presidential initiative", and he explained the rejection of the meeting with Pelosi by the fact that it was impossible to change his schedule for that day.
Meanwhile, during a trip to the Adriatic city earlier today, Milanovic said that in two weeks, he said, Pelosi "will not be who she is now because the Republicans will win by a landslide" in the Nov. 8 election.
Milanovych also stated that he sees "a lot of cynicism and insincerity towards the Ukrainian people and the war" and does not want to take part in it.
"Ultimately, the USA and Russia will have to sit down at the negotiating table, because they are waging a puppet war for Ukraine, and the Ukrainian people are paying a terrible price for it. I don't know why no one dares to talk about it openly, but it's true," Zoran Milanovych said.
It should be noted that the position of the Croatian government regarding Ukraine is radically different from the views of the president. Zoran Milanovych is one of the top leaders of EU countries most sympathetic to Moscow, along with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban.