BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — Greeted by enthusiastic chants of “Putin! Putin!,” Russian President Vladimir Putin attended a military parade Thursday in Slavic ally Serbia, where he held talks on economic issues, including on the South Stream gas pipeline opposed by the European Union.

Waving Russian and Serbian flags and displaying banners “Thank You Russia,” tens of thousands came to see the parade in Belgrade, which marked the 70th anniversary of the liberation of the Serbian capital from the Nazi German occupation by the Red Army and Communist Yugoslav Partisans.