The Serbian ship of lunatics is the pride and joy of the Russian Navy – an unattributed Serbian joke
Just before the Serbian president, Aleksandar Vucic, made his first visit to Ukraine, the state-affiliated news portal “Novosti” sent him off with a headline that says “SKY IS BURNING OVER UKRAINE: Russia responds to Kyiv’s terrorist attacks“. See, the majority of the Serbian media outlets and the general population consider the Operation Spiderweb that struck the Russian strategic aviation a “terrorist attack”.
That’s after “Politika” made its contribution to Russia’s war against reality with the headline that reads “Russian city of Mariupol was once a symbol of suffering, but today is a city of prosperity“.
Vox populi took to X, the Artist Formerly Known As Twitter, to echo these sentiments:
“What kind of peace talks are these, when airports deep in the Russian territory are attacked and some planes get destroyed. Completely meaningless from a military aspect, now they will get a response. Violence begets violence. They won’t get peace.”
People like sloba are our family members, coworkers, neighbours, friends, calling an attack on a bunch of valid Russian military targets “violence”.
But what of the Serbian opposition?
Here we have the retired Serbian general and former Chief of Staff Zdravko Ponoš, now a member of the Serbian parliament, reacting to the Kremlin’s criticism of the Serbian arms sales to Ukraine by saying how “Putin is losing his patience with those who call him a brother, but plot against his life behind his back“. Instead of simply telling Maria Zakharova to piss off, the Serbian opposition is trying to score some points with the local Russophilic electorate.
The public discourse is still trying to frame the Serbian arms sales to Ukraine, which are now reportedly stopped, as a bad thing. BIRN reports, “Even after Russia publicly accused it of betrayal, Serbia approved the transit through its territory of almost 1,000 artillery shells from Bosnia on behalf of a Czech company tasked with keeping Ukraine’s army supplied with ammunition.“
A betrayal? Strange choice of words.
Maybe not so strange after the well-known Russian neo-Nazi lunatic Alexandr Dugin voiced his support for the protests because he has now determined that it is not a color revolution, which is Kremlin-speak name for pro-democracy movements:
Aleksandar Dugin, who is considered to be an ideologue of Russian President Vladimir Putin, stated in his original programme on Radio Sputnik that Aleksandar Vucic is finished and has no support from the citizens.
He said on air that the legitimacy of the Serbian leader, Aleksandar Vucic, has disappeared.
“The state is behind Vucic and has no support from the population”
“All Serbs want Vucic to go. Today, in fact, the state is behind him and has no support from the population. The only thing that is happening is that those people who are afraid of another colour revolution are not taking part in the protests, they are not going to the square, they are not shouting. But Vucic is finished, his legitimacy is gone”, Dugin said.
The Russian philosopher believes that the protesters in the streets reflect the opinion of the whole of Serbian society, which is unlikely to endanger the current government.
Serbian Monitor informs us that
Support among Serbian citizens for European Union membership is declining. A survey conducted in May by Lidington Research and the Institute for European Studies shows that more than 50 percent are against it.
The highest level of public support for EU membership was in 2009, during the period of visa liberalisation.
Since then, it has either steadily declined or stagnated, entering a negative phase after the start of the war in Ukraine.
A traditional majority of respondents – 73 percent – also oppose Serbia joining NATO, reports RTS.
Russia seen as a more desirable ally
In the political sphere, over half of those surveyed see Russia as a more desirable ally.
Slobodan Zečević, Director of the Institute for European Studies, says this is logical, given Russia’s favourable stance toward Serbian national interests—such as those concerning the Kosovo issue and the Republic of Srpska. However, he does not consider such reliance realistic in Serbia’s current circumstances. He cites reliance on Russia in the 1990s and now in the Middle East as examples.
“The regime of Bashar al-Assad has collapsed, and the Iranian regime is now facing difficulties,” notes Zečević.
He reminds that Serbia experienced major problems in the 1990s and ultimately failed to achieve any of its national goals.
“Russia’s goodwill toward us is one thing, but real life is something entirely different,” stresses Zečević.
Serbian citizens support BRICS
In line with their views on Russia, Serbian citizens also express support for BRICS membership.
Around 60 percent favour joining the economic and political bloc of countries seeking to cooperate independently of the West.
Dimitrije Milić notes that citizens interpret what BRICS could offer in various ways.pu
“Some see it as a way to right certain wrongs from the 1990s, others as a form of economic benefit due to China’s strength, and a third group sees it as a natural fit for Serbia because Russia is involved,” says Milić.
It is worth reminding that the protests in Serbia last fall started after a fatal collapse of a train station canopy that was reconstructed by a Chinese contractor, financed from a Russian-Chinese loan.
And here we are, nine months later, with a public that demands more BRICS per capita.
Vucic’s promises that Serbia will reconstruct Ukrainian cities or even entire regions are yet another Serbian Potemkin village, considering the recent string of burning landfills in Serbia, which have become customary here every summer.
And what of our “wonderful” students, academia, and civic society that, as Timothy Snyder put it once so cluelessly, “will change the world”? Here’s what Marta Kos, the European Commissioner for Enlargement, shared with us in one of her recent interviews (sources Beta and NIN):
She also spoke about the reasons why EU flags are not visible at student protests in Serbia.
“It is interesting that when I asked various representatives why there are no European flags, I received roughly four responses. The first is that you support Vučić. The second is because you bombed us – that was NATO, not the EU. The third is that you are asking us to recognize Kosovo, which the EU does not actually require from Serbia. And the fourth is that we do not want to offend Russia. So, it is a complicated situation,” Kos said, adding that she is in constant contact with representatives of civil society in Serbia.
So, they gave her a bunch of excuses for Serbian stubborn grievance politics!
No complaints from Vucic’s opponents about, say, Chinese tofu-dreg projects collapsing on our heads, like the one in Novi Sad.
The only thing that managed to move a budge in one year of supposedly dramatic political and civic unrest here is that the Overton window has now been pushed further into the authoritarian section of the political spectrum.
Serbianism 