A Russian news video claiming that Serbian “volunteers” have been trained to fight alongside Russian troops in Ukraine has sparked outrage in Serbia, raising tensions with Moscow. Complex relationships are exposed.
Russia’s Wagner mercenary group produced Serbian-language videos to encourage recruitment for the war.
Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić reacted angrily on national TV.
“Why would you, from Wagner, call someone from Serbia when you know it’s against our regulations?” They said.
Critics often accuse Serbia of prioritizing its long-standing friendship with Russia over its desire to join the EU. But what has unfolded in Belgrade in recent days shows that the picture is not so black and white.
In an allusion to less rosy relations with Moscow, President Vučić said that not only was Serbia “neutral” regarding the war in Ukraine, but that he had not spoken to Russian President Vladimir Putin for “several months.”
It is illegal for Serbian citizens to participate in conflicts abroad.
The number of Serbian recruits involved is not significant. Some fought alongside Russian forces in Ukraine in 2014, but without any official endorsement.
In fact, Serbian courts convicted more than two dozen people for taking part in “fighting on foreign fronts.”
On Thursday, a Belgrade-based lawyer and anti-war groups filed criminal complaints against the Russian ambassador as well as the head of Serbia’s State Security and Information Agency (BIA) for allegedly recruiting Serbians for the Wagner group. .
In Belgrade, where provocative murals are numbingly common, a death head of Wagner appeared on a downtown wall last week. It was signed by the People’s Patrols, a far-right organization that had previously rarely participated in pro-Russian rallies.
