The Party of Freedom and Justice, an opposition party in Serbia, protested the interference of Russian Ambassador Aleksandr Botsan-Kharchenko in Belgrade. Its leader, Dragan Djilas, an unpopular and vilified figure amongst the populist electorate and a victim of the government’s smear campaigns, was not mincing words.
"For Kharchenko, democracy is when former officials to fall through the window like in Russia": Djilas replied to the Russian ambassador
"People who have been asking for justice for nine months, who are asking for institutions to exist and work, in fact want to cause bloodshed and civil war. And for that, of course, they were instructed by the West, which is carrying out a colored revolution in Serbia." This is the essence of what was said by Russian citizen Bocan Kharchenko, whom Russia sent to Belgrade six years ago to be an ambassador, so it forgot to invite him back, said Dragan Đilas, president of the Freedom and Justice Party.
Kharchenko regrets that the state did not stifle democracy more forcefully, used greater repression against citizens, because according to his criteria, this is not enough. Probably, in Serbia, as in Russia, anyone who thinks differently should be arrested and sentenced to prison terms of 5 to 25 years. Or in Serbia, as in Russia, the number of former officials who fall through the window should approach the number of window cleaners who, according to Vučić, fall off the buildings every year in America. For Mr. Botsan-Kharchenko, that would be real democracy, not what is called democracy and the rule of law in Europe, and what we want to have in Serbia, Đilas said.
The democracy that the Russian ambassador is proposing brought to Serbia, since the beginning of the war, tens of thousands of Russians, that democracy made possible the enormous enrichment of a narrow circle of people who took hundreds and hundreds of billions of euros out of Russia, that democracy abolished free elections. Thank you, Mr. Kharchenko, but we had such a democracy in Serbia in the nineties and we almost have it today. We only need a war to be the same, if not worse, than in the nineties. The Serbian people and citizens of Serbia will not do that. And that's why they're on the streets, not because they're being pushed into it by the West, which has been supporting Vučić and his regime for a decade. Serbia is part of Europe and a candidate for membership in the European Union. In achieving that goal, no matter how much we sometimes disagree with the decisions and actions of the European Union, neither Vučić nor those from the east and west who support him will stop us, Đilas concluded.
Borko Stefanović, his party deputy and an MP, joined in on the denunciations of the Russian ambassador in an X post.
Mr. Ambassador Botsan-Kharchenko,
it is not the first time that you have publicly and rudely interfered in the internal affairs of Serbia, and your ministry is happy to do so. For a long time now, you have persistently insulted the citizens of Serbia, labeling them as foreign mercenaries and instruments of the West. You thereby lose the sympathy of our people because you defend the regime of an autocrat and his criminal activities equally persistently.
It should be noted that on November 23rd, 2018, Stefanović and several of his party members (Serbian Left) were physically assaulted in Kruševac before a public speaking event that he was supposed to attend. He was hit on the back of his head and sustained a cracked skull. That sparked the “Stop bloody shirts” protests.
Peđa Mitrović, another member of the Freedom and Justice Party and an MP, recently also sustained a head injury during protests.
Movement of Free Citizens (PSG) blasted Botsan-Kharchenko, as well.
Botsan-Kharchenko does not decide who will rule Serbia - the future is decided by the citizens
Ambassador Botsan-Kharchenko is once again acting as a spokesperson for the SNS regime, which isn't leading Serbia down the European path, which Russia and the ambassador himself use for their political messages.
In any normal European country, such statements by the Russian ambassador would be followed by a sharp diplomatic reaction and a clear statement that foreign interference in internal affairs is not tolerated. Only in Serbia can the ambassador talks about who should rule, and the government remains silent. This clearly tells us where this government is leading Serbia.
PSG clearly says: the future of Serbia will not be decided by Moscow, nor by any foreign power, but exclusively by the citizens of Serbia. That is why from the beginning we demanded the introduction of sanctions against Putin's Russia and we unequivocally choose Serbia's European path as the only way to ensure peace, security and prosperity.
Our path is clear — Europe, freedom and democracy. Serbia will determine its future by itself, in free elections, and not according to the dictates of authoritarian regimes.
Radivoje Jovović, a Free Citizen Movement (PSG) party official and a Vojvodina province MP, was detained by the police on August 19th. Five PSG members and a member of the STAV organization are being held in house arrest.
Ya know, it kinda looks like a pattern of behaviour aimed at certain opposition movements in Serbia.
Some of the Serbian netizens were much more verbose in their dealings with the Russian MFA, whose X post about the events in Serbia got blasted with colorful Serbian profanities.
But what about the “beautiful students”? Well, when it comes to Russia, only crickets can be heard from them. They did inform Marta Kos that they don’t want to offend Russia and that they are still miffed over some EU bombing of Serbia. The bombing that happened years before most of them were born.
Serbianism 