Vice President of the Serbian Radical Party (SRS) Milorad Mircic said Monday that Russian capital was Serbia's only hope of getting out of the economic crisis and stopping the fast decline into poverty by a large part of the population.

The government, which is shamelessly robbing people by raising taxes and utility prices, should now beg Russia to buy Telekom and invest that money into agriculture and other parts of the economy, Mircic argued.

If there are any investments from the EU, they will be used to open new megastores of foreign retail chains, Mircic stressed, adding that any loans from world financial institutions would require political concessions.

"The government will have to give up parts of Serbia's territory and fulfil many political demands, first of which is to recognize Kosovo's independence, if it wants to get financial assistance from the west," Mircic remarked.

There is a ready-made alternative to the current government coalition, and that is the Serbian Progressive Party, already supported by the EU and U.S., he noted.

Serbia will be better off if SRS leader Vojislav Seselj is released by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in March, Mircic stated. That would make it possible to change the government at the next elections and lead Serbia out of the crisis, he believes.