About 80% of Serbs believe that NATO has started a war against Russia
The country's new deputy prime minister is a pro-Russian official under EU and US sanctions
Russia is using the Kosovo issue to position itself as a defender of Serbia's territorial integrity, justifying its aggressive activities in the region.
Moscow has called on Belgrade to revive its national project, now known as the "Serbian World", which essentially involves reversing the defeats of the 1990s and redrawing the map of the Balkans. The Russian propaganda outlet Russia Today Balkan launched a Serbian-language portal in late 2022, engaging influential Serbian journalists and intellectuals to significantly influence the Serbian public and media space by promoting pro-Russian sentiment. As a result, almost 80% of Serbian citizens believe that NATO initiated the war against Russia.
This was stated by Sonia Biserko, founder and president of the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Serbia, to The Insider.
On 2 May, a new government was elected in Serbia, which includes pro-Russian officials under US sanctions, Radio Liberty's Balkan service reports.
One of them is the former head of the Serbian Security and Information Agency (BIA, analogue of the Russian FSB) Aleksandar Vulin, who was appointed deputy prime minister. He has been linked to the ban on Russian anti-war activists in the country. In 2021, Vulin handed over to Patrushev wiretaps of Russian opposition activists in Serbia, which could have led to the arrest of some of them. The US and EU imposed sanctions on Vulin, which led to his resignation as head of the BIA.
Former Defence Minister Milos Vucevic became the new Prime Minister of Serbia. In an interview after his election, he said that Serbia would not give up its friendship with Russia, whose people he considers fraternal, like the Ukrainians.
He also stated that the Serbian authorities would not impose anti-Russian sanctions.
Vucevic, however, stressed that Serbia sees EU membership as a strategic goal and wants to maintain good relations with the United States as much as possible.
Serbian militants say they joined Russia in the war against Ukraine because of their deep sympathy for the goals and objectives of the Russian leadership. Serbs are known to have performed combat and counterintelligence tasks for eight pro-Russian paramilitary groups, including the Wagner PMC. The number of Serbian militants in Ukraine is unknown, but it could be quite large.
Background. Meanwhile, it has become known that Serbia has refused to buy Russian fighter jets and decided to buy French ones.
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