A flight inbound to Moscow, carrying Aleksandar Vulin, Dušan Bajatović and Nenad Popović, all three senior Serbian politicians aligned with Aleksandar Vučić, was returned to Serbia on the orders of Belgrade airport security. Vulin claims he was on official business to negotiate an extension of the gas agreement, which is nonsense considering he would have no authority to do such a thing. Bajatović, who heads Srbijagas, the state-owned gas distributor, told the Serbian media that he did not know why Vulin and Popovic were travelling to Moscow.
All three of them are outspokenly pro-Russian. Heck, Bajatović’s Socialist Party of Serbia is so deep in the Kremlin’s backside that its boss, Dačić, got stuck in Russia due to an air raid in the middle of the Serbian election campaign. Let that sink in: he was campaigning – in Russia.
The mentioned ALTA Bank lost its license due to a loss of liquidity, which is attributed to a capital flight to – you guessed it – Russia. These three gentlemen weren’t flying off to Sweden or Germany, but to Russia.
Noticing a pattern already? So why in the world do we need a referendum on joining the EU and whether or not Serbia should sanction Russia? For what does the Student List have to be grateful to Russia?
ALTA Bank’s owner was arrested in Belgrade. It is worth noting that ALTA Bank’s arrested owner, Davor Macura, recently purchased the supermarkets of Roda, Idea, and Mercator. It remains to be seen whether those companies will be affected by ALTA Bank’s closure. Contrary to this online myth that spread, it wasn’t some “bank for Russians”, most expats and foreigners (non-residents) had accounts, including the business ones, there because they could open them with a foreign passport.
Naturally, a throng of Russians had accounts there, because there is a throng of Russians in Serbia. It seems to be hard to determine how many, considering the administrative chaos that is Serbia, so different sources have different numbers.
The local and regional press started running sob stories about…poor, little Russians.
Kurir: The Russian community in Serbia was particularly affected…the situation after the license revocation of ALTA Bank showed solidarity between Russian and Serbian citizens…some people go to Russian stores and pay in cash to help entrepreneurs who are left without access to money.
Biznis Kurir: The drama of Russians who came to Belgrade because of ALTA Bank: They sold apartments in Moscow and St. Petersburg to start life in Serbia, only to be left penniless
BN/Meduza: ‘I have two days until the food in my fridge runs out’: Thousands of Russian emigrants left scrambling after Serbia shuts down ALTA Bank, freezing their savings
Vreme: Russians are touched: Serbian solidarity with Russian small businesses after the closure of ALTA Bank
Awww. So, when will the Russians get their money back? Forgive me for not giving a damn – so far, there have been zero articles in Serbian media titled “When will Russians stop killing Ukrainians?”
The histrionics didn’t stop there. Both the pro-student and the Progressive-aligned media ran stories that are faking a moral outrage about an imaginary anti-Russian ethnic hatred on Serbian social media. Yup, the intrepid anti-corruption Serbian media uncovered yet another dastardly, chauvinist network on X that wrote *gasp* “Russians out!”
Well, feel free to add me to that list of evil, pro-EU Russophobes: Russians out!
An average netizen of the world has seen this meme plenty of times.
It is not an exaggeration. My compatriots have spent decades on the internet shilling for poor, little Russians who are under attack by everyone. This time, Russians are “attacked” by tweets, so Serbian people are rushing to their rescue.
The X and Facebook posts of Russians in Serbia making the having access to banking services in a foreign country an issue of their basic human rights that they are entitled to is particularly ridiculous. This whole ordeal is yet another example of how poorly the Russian expats in Serbia are integrated into our society, by their own choice.
So when the referendum cometh to choose whether or not Serbia will stick to the failing, yet murderous Russian revanchist imperialism or at least try to join the EU, the world’s largest economic and peace project, you can only imagine what the result will be in the atmosphere dictated by vatnik fanatics.
As for whether ammo sales to Ukraine continue, we will know soon enough, it is impossible to keep under wraps whether companies that work in 24/7 shifts produce. Fun fact: Serbia stopped all weapon sales to Armenia, Georgia, and Azerbaijan in 2006. Result? Protests by angry blue-collar workers employed by the arms factories.
