Russian Ambassador in Serbia Alexander Botsan-Kharchenko said he hopes that the supply of Serbian-made munitions to Ukraine is a thing of the past. The ambassador (nicknamed Cockchenko by more liberal Serbian citizens) stated that Serbian-made munitions were supplied to Ukraine, which, he added, casts what he called a very painful shadow.
His Excellency is omnipresent in the Serbian media on both sides of the political fence that keep echoing his and other Russian official statements without any filter whatsoever, in attempts to please the Russophilic audience in Serbia.
Maybe someone should inform that the factory “14. Oktobar” in Kruševac, owned by the Czechoslovak Group, produces missile casings and mortar ammunition stabilizers, and 120 mm tank ammunition and 122 mm artillery ammunition. CSG, owned by Michal Strnad, is one of the key players in the Czech government’s ammunition initiative to supply Ukraine.
In 2025, Michal Strnad stated that he aims to grow the Czechoslovak Group into the second-largest European defense manufacturer.
May their aim be true in defense of Ukrainian freedom and putting food on the table of hard-working Serbian people.
The manipulative tone of both the pro-government and independent media in Serbia is geared towards preserving the supposed reputation of Russia, which is viewed as both an unstoppable superpower and an innocent angel provoked, a victim of Western plots.
For example, following the news of the death of the Serbian arms trade company employee in Moscow, the “journalists” associated with The Wonderful Students, publicly wondered, “gee, why is someone PUSHING the news of his death, it’s as if somehow THEY are trying to make Russia look bad.”
As if somehow you can make Russia look “good”. The whole premise is based on an assumption that the government would shape public opinion to make it more susceptible to the idea of the national oil company being potentially taken away from the (in)capable Russian hands. Vladimir Putin’s indulgence in fantasies about how Russia supposedly invested three billion euros in the Serbian Oil Industry goes unchallenged.
Not that it was much different before Vučić returned to the office in 2012. Back in 2008, a foreign consortium, Comico Oil, proposed a plan to build an oil refinery in Smederevo, an investment worth 250 million USD. Petar Škundrić, a member of the Socialist Party of Serbia who served as the Minister of Energy and Mining from 2008 to 2011, made a statement that the interstate agreement between Serbia and the Russian Federation prohibits the construction of rivaling refineries until the Russian NIS owners complete the modernization of the Pančevo refinery. The Serbian government at the time immediately denied this, but they, it was worth a shot – throw some spaghetti at the wall and see if it sticks. The project was eventually scrapped in 2012, but there seems to be a renewed interest in such an investment coming from China.
Even those voices that are kinda pro-European in Serbia often keep pushing the lines on how Russian management by some magic made the local oil monopolist “successful.” It latches onto the Global South fantasy that Russia is a country where everyone is swimming in Bentleys. The almost obligatory punchline is how “Russia never bombed us”.
Serbianism 