And that cliche has been repeated so often that Serbs actually believe it, but history says otherwise. Everytime the Serbs relied on Russia, they got screwed. Russia used Serbs for their own purposes to get what they wanted and left Serbs high & dry in the clinches.
The only ones that Serbs have ever been able to depend on are the Greeks! Russians are more like cousins to the Serbs than they are like brothers. Greeks are like brothers because they come through in the clinches when the Russians just make promises and then walk away.
Not exactly, Russia is simply a little too far to help effectively. For example Russians really wanted to help Serbs in 1914, it ended up in destruction of Russia BTW.
They tried to help in 1999 but they were very weak at that time and they were not permitted to fly over countries in between. Now Serbia is landlocked.