What a time to be alive – Vučić hosted a dinner for Zelenskyy in Belgrade, the government media (yes, even the tabloids) are on their best behaviour, they even managed to utter a few nice words about Ukrainians and EU integration, while the Serbian opposition and student infosphere are having yet another anti-EU fit.
X post by Boško Obradović, the leader of the clero-nazi movement “Dveri”, which pledged its support to the student movement in Serbia: “The visit of the neonazi Zelenskyy to Serbia is Vučić’s latest bet on the EU that is expected to turn a blind eye on his plan to rig the elections. He already sold out Kosovo in return for his unscrupulous grip on power, so why wouldn’t he pay extra by siding against Russia or by joining NATO“.
The whole big idea of bringing down Vučić by trying to be a bigger Serb and pro-Russian than the Serbian government is a notion fully supported by a large portion of the supposed moderates in Serbia. And it ain’t working, as illustrated by this yuuuge crowd protesting against the Ukrainian president’s visit.
The cockamamy spin that the public concocted is that Zelenskyy’s visit is a signal to the Westerners, especially the European Union, that Vučić is ready to be cooperative and that the Serbian government is expecting favors in return. Here’s the students bandwagoning on that idea, believing how Progressives’ support among the nationalist electorate can be assaulted by accusations of treason:
“While Serbia burns, Vučić is cuddling with Zelenskyy in Belgrade. Does this hug actually represent the opening of Cluster 3, or is the deceitful foreign policy of our authorities tarnishing the already tarnished international reputation of Serbia?“, students are JAQ-ing off on X, because in their minds, meeting with Zelenskyy tarnishes your reputation.
42-story Belgrade Tower media facade at the Belgrade Waterfront was displaying Serbian and Ukrainian flags in honor of the Ukrainian President’s visit. Certainly an improvement over it displaying “Serbs are not a genocidal nation”, which it does from time to time.
During a weekend football match (that’s soccer for our US friends), in response to Zelenskyy’s visit to Serbia, Red Star Belgrade ultras displayed a banner, “While you are hosting a Nazi in Belgrade, the Serbs are bleeding on the crucified Kosovo!”, while Russian songs were played over the PA system. There were also Russian flags on the stands, and spectators shouted: “Serbs and Russians, brothers forever!”
As expected, the Russian media is getting into a funk over Zelenskyy’s visit to Serbia. RT Balkan is the loudest, putting a spin on how the Ukrainian government congratulated Croatia on its August 5th celebration, making a case that is disrespectful to Serbs expelled from Croatia, yada yada, while “reminding” how Russia stands with Serbian victim commemorations on August 4th every year, blah blah.
RT also pushed the narrative about the supposed UN resolution that had branded the Serbian people as “genocidal” (which is another one of those things that never happened) for which Ukraine supposedly voted, while Russia supposedly was staunchly against, standing firm with Serbia and all that jazz.
On the other hand, there’s also the former US Ambassador to Serbia, Christopher Hill, who told FAZ about the efforts the United States made to support military cooperation between Serbia and Ukraine during his tenure as ambassador in Belgrade from 2022 to 2025, reported by Beta and European Western Balkans.
Not like this was a big secret, mind you. The Russian portals’ reporting on further alleged transfers of Bosnian and Serbian ammunition ending up in Ukraine was already picked up by the Serbian media. The reports by TASS and RIA Novosti, further amplified by lesser Russian portals, state that the bans are being circumvented by exporting only components, while final assembly is carried out in third countries, like Poland. The narrative there is that in spite of the export restrictions from last summer, the weapons and ammo kept flowing. Well, the local media in Serbia at the time did inform us that the defense companies kept working as usual, three shifts, round the clock.
RFE and Serbian media already reported a month before that about specialized Israeli cargo planes landing and taking off from the Belgrade airport. Also, both Cyprus and Azerbaijan recently displayed new weapons systems produced and bought from Serbia. So, despite the moratorium, the arms exports supposedly continued. It should be noted that Russian agitprop having loud meltdowns over Serbian foreign policy is NOT helping Russia’s case in Serbia.
If someone wants a bunch of Serbian blue-collars to tell foreign busybodies and local journalists to go [expletive] their [expletive], they need to push more stories like these. They care about food on their plates, not “Russian speakers” nor rivers to the sea. Those same working-class people will feel less inclined to be pro-Russian if they think the Kremlin will have them starve so they can prosecute their incompetent war more easily. Serbian people do value martial prowess, and are NOT impressed by Russia’s defeats.
But that doesn’t stop minor Russian outlets like Svobodnaya Pressa, echoing “insights” from BS peddlers like the Guardian, from creating a vaster plot involving high-ranking Ukrainian officials who supposedly leaked to AFP that Zelenskyy’s visit is planned as a “slap to the face of Russians” and a plan to “separate Serbia from Russia”.
Go, Ukraine, slap Russia harder.
Vučić’s assessment is that Serbia had “lost nothing” by hosting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and that it will continue pursuing an independent foreign policy.
Your author’s assessment is that all this theatre doesn’t change much, other than having the pleasure of witnessing the pro-Russian crowd in Serbia throwing silly tantrums over the supposed betrayal of Serbian national interest, which their imagination tied to the rise of Russia from its self-inflicted humiliating defeat in the Cold War.
Serbianism 