Croatian president wants Putin to visit; PM mulls sanctions

Croatian president wants Putin to visit; PM mulls sanctions

"This is a serious problem, most countries at the moment share the position of the United Kingdom," Plenkovic told reporters in Brussels, commenting on "the increasing number of condemnations of Russia, which is considered responsible for the poisoning of the double Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter in Britain."

According to Croatian website dnevnik.hr, cited by Tanjug on Friday, he also said that "several members of the European Union now have two options for sanctions against Russia."

One, Plenkovic said, is to expel a number of representatives of the Russian Federation in their countries, and the other, to withdraw their ambassadors from Moscow for consultations.

Plenkovic's statement came one day after the Kremlin announced that Russian President Vladimir Putin had a telephone conversation with Croatian counterpart Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic, during which the Croatian president repeated her invitation to Putin to visit Croatia, and once again congratulated him on his recent reelection.

Last October, Grabar-Kitarovic was on an official visit to Russia, when she first invited Putin to visit Croatia.

Plenkovic, however, commented very briefly on the telephone conversation between the two presidents on Thursday, to say that it was "most likely" a "courtesy conversation."