On a state visit to Belgrade for its first military parade in some 30 years, Russian President Vladimir Putin has pledged continued support for Serbia.
Thousands of people lined the streets of Belgrade to greet Putin on October 16 as he attended the event marking 70 years since Soviet troops helped liberate Belgrade from Nazi occupation -- a celebration Serbia moved forward four days to accommodate Putin's schedule.
More than 3,000 Serbian soldiers took part in the parade, with tanks, rockets, and jets -- including a Russian aerobatic team -- all featuring.
Authorities in Bosnia-Herzegovina’s Serb-run entity, Republika Srpska, organized two buses to bring people to the event.
Putin earlier received Serbia's highest honor -- the award of the Order of The Republic of Serbia -- from Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic.
At talks with Nikolic, Putin promised that Russia would stand firm over the divisive issue of Kosovo.
"We supported Serbia in the past and we intend to continue supporting it in the future. In Russia friendship is not an object of trade-offs," Putin said.
Nikolic said Serbia "sees in Russia a great ally and a partner and Serbia won't compromise its morals with any kind of bad behavior towards Russia."
Putin’s visit highlights Serbia's delicate balance between the European Union, which it is seeking to join, and relations with Russia that are rooted in history and religion but encompass economic and geopolitical interests.
Russia angrily criticized the NATO bombing of the rump Yugoslavia in 1999 and has backed Belgrade's opposition to independence for mostly ethnic Albanian Kosovo, defying the United States and preventing Kosovo from getting a seat at the United Nations.
Putin promised Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic that Russia would stand firm over Kosovo, saying the Kremlin's stance was "a position of principle that is not to be subjected to any adjustments."
"We supported Serbia in the past and we intend to continue supporting it in the future. In Russia, friendship is not an object of trade-offs," Putin said.
Nikolic said Serbia "sees in Russia a great ally and a partner and Serbia won't compromise its morals with any kind of bad behavior towards Russia."
Criticizing sanctions that the United States and the European Union have imposed on Moscow over its actions in Ukraine in an interview on the eve of his visit, Putin told the Serbian daily "Politika" that isolating Russia was an "absurd, illusory goal" and attempts to do so would hurt Europe's economy.
In a pointed reminder of Russia's nuclear might, Putin said: "We hope our partners will realize the futility of attempts to blackmail Russia and remember what consequences discord between major nuclear powers could bring for strategic stability."
WATCH: Military Honor Guard Welcomes Putin To Belgrade
Putin used his October visit to promote South Stream, a Russian gas pipeline project that that the EU has suspended in member states.
Serbia has recently indicated it will not start building South Stream. Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic said last week "it makes no sense" to start without an agreement on the pipeline's legality between the EU and Moscow.
"It is necessary to unblock the situation with South Stream," Putin said. "I am convinced that this project will make a palpable contribution to Europe's overall energy security. Everyone wins from this: Both Russia and European consumers, including Serbia."
The European Commission released a report on candidate countries earlier this month that warned Belgrade's plans to build a portion of the pipeline and its refusal to follow the EU's lead on sanctions against Russia could jeopardize Serbia's bid for EU membership.
Putin told "Politika" that the pipeline project would bring Serbia more than 2 billion euros in new investment and "substantially strengthen the country's energy security."
Putin's warm Serbian welcome may contrast with the greeting he faces hours later at an October 16-17 Europe-Asia summit in Milan, where he will meet Western leaders angry over Russia's role in the Ukraine crisis.
NATO says Russian has sent troops and weapons to help pro-Russian separatists fighting government forces in a conflict that has killed more than 3,660 people in eastern Ukraine since April, including 298 passengers and crew abroad a Malaysian jet shot down there in July.
Ahead of his visit to Belgrade, Putin said the importance of the liberation anniversary events could not be overestimated.
"Seventy years ago, our peoples together crushed the criminal ideology of misanthropy that threatened civilization," said Putin.
In a veiled swipe at the United States, he said, "It is important today that people in various countries, on various continents, remember what terrible consequences certainty in one's own exceptionalism can bring."
Putin said he hopes for peace in Ukraine but suggested Ukrainians whose protests toppled a president sympathetic to Moscow in February presented a Nazi-like threat.
"Unfortunately the vaccine against the Nazi virus...is losing its potency in some European states.," he told "Politika," adding: "particular concern on this score is prompted by the situation in Ukraine, where there was an anticonstitutional coup d'etat in February whose driving forces were nationalists and other radical groups."
Despite Serbia's desire to become a member of the European Union, ties between Belgrade and Moscow have become stronger since the EU started imposing sanctions on Russia for the Kremlin's annexation of Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula and support for separatists in eastern Ukraine.
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In comments to RFE/RL's Balkan Service, Vucic pointed to the complications his country is facing as it balances its foreign policy between the EU and Russia.
"We are not part of the EU and nobody asked us about sanctions against Russia, so why should we have to accept them now?" Vucic asked.
Vucic said Serbia respects what the EU stands for and what EU membership offers but rejects Brussels' recent habit of telling Belgrade about changes it must make to be admitted.
Vucic pointed out that within the EU there are five countries that have not recognized the independence of Kosovo.
However, he told reporters last week that "Putin will hear that Serbia is on the European path. We have other relations we are developing with the Russian Federation, but the strategic goal is not in question -- Serbia is on the EU path."
WATCH: Belgrade residents welcome Putin's visit:
That may not always be evident to the naked eye.
In anticipation of the Russian leader's visit, shops around Belgrade have been selling T-shirts with Putin's face printed on them.
People around the city pointed to the long friendship between Serbs and Russians as reason to welcome Russia's leader.
Belgrade resident Vukan Baricanin, a retired economist, welcomed Putin's visit.
"Nothing better could happen to us. Putin is a famous personality. He turned a country that was on the verge of bankruptcy into a world power."
But Dragan Sutanovac, who was Serbia’s defense minister between 2007 and 2012, denounced “a desire for idolatry in regard to Putin.”
Construction engineer Predrag Markovic saw it as natural that Putin would attend a celebration marking the liberation of Belgrade.
"We wouldn't mind if other leaders came, too, but I think that Russia and the former Soviet Union were the most important in the liberation of Belgrade."
Slobodan Knezevic said Putin's attendance at the anniversary was appropriate.
"It is really a good thing that they invited the Russians and Putin. Serbia should thank them for many things. They were always helping us," Knezevic said, "but it doesn’t mean that we have to stand only by their side. But it is great that they invited them."
