The sanctions truncate the Kremlin’s plans: Putin’s foreign minister will not be able to visit Serbia because three countries have prohibited the passage of the Russian plane through their airspace

Bulgaria, North Macedonia and Montenegro asserted the measures taken against Russia for its brutal invasion of Ukraine

Sergei Lavrov (REUTERS)

Russia admitted this Sunday that it will not be able to finalize the trip of its foreign minister to Serbia. Bulgaria, North Macedonia and Montenegro do not allow the overflight of their airspace by the plane in which the Foreign Minister, Sergey Lavrov, was going to travel, so his visit to that country next week cannot take place.

“Our diplomacy has not yet managed to teleport”, he answered annoyedA senior official from the Russian Foreign Ministry told the Interfax agency when asked if the visit scheduled for Monday and Tuesday was cancelled.

The source confirmed that Bulgaria, North Macedonia and Montenegro have not authorized Lavrov’s plane to fly over their airspace.

After the invasion of Ukraine, the West, led by the United States and the United Kingdom, applied strong sanctions against Russia to isolate the country and complicate the financing of its bloody war.

In addition to the flight ban for Russian aircraft, this policy of isolation was widely reflected in the massive exodus of companies that Russia suffered. Brands such as McDonald’s, Starbucks, Coca-Cola, Apple, IBM and Amazon, among others, make up the huge list of firms that suspended their operations in the country in rejection of the invasion.

The foreign minister thought that due to his diplomatic status he was going to evade the measures but this time he did not succeed. Indeed, Putin’s powerful official faces sanctions personally.

Appointed foreign minister by Putin in 2004, this tall and willingly tough man is the target of international sanctions for his role in the invasion of Ukraine: the European Union, the United Kingdom and the United States were included on their blacklist.

The US Treasury Department called him Putin’s “chief propagandist” for having “spread the false narrative that Ukraine is the aggressor.”

Serbia, which is almost entirely dependent on Russian oil and gas, has come under fire for declaring itself neutral in Russia’s offensive against Ukraine and refusing to impose sanctions on Moscow.

The Sanctions have shown their effectiveness as the ruble fell to record lows after Western countries froze $300 billion of Russia’s foreign exchange reserves, preventing the central bank from deploying its arsenal of support .

Many analysts and international leaders consider that the Russian president’s miscalculation was almost total. In addition to underestimating the resistance capacity of the Ukrainian forces, for many Putin thought that by invading Ukraine he was going to provoke breaks and differences in the West. But the opposite ended up happening: Western powers applied a forceful package of sanctions against Russia, Putin, his inner circle and the long list of oligarchs who answer to him.