German Report: Serbia Russia’s Closest Ally in Europe

Aleksandar Vucic and Vladimir Putin (Photo: The General Secretariat of the President of the Republic/Dimitrije Goll)

Serbia is Russia's closest European ally and corruption runs rampant in this Balkan country, according to an analysis published by the German Friedrich Naumann Foundation.

In the report, titled Russia and the Trailblazers of Autocracy: How the Kremlin Destabilizes Europe, the journalist and university professor Thomas Brey notes that Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic has met with Russian President Vladimir Putin 17 times and received the Order of Alexander Nevsky in Moscow, generally reserved for great Russians, in 2019, describing this as one of the happiest moments in his political career.

The report goes on to say that the regime in Serbia is attempting to carry out a "Serbian world" policy patterned on the similar "Russian world" project, adding that "this Greater Serbian program" was one of the causes of the bloody wars during the break-up of the former Yugoslavia. Recalling that Serbia has not aligned with the European Union's policy and has not introduced sanctions against Russia, the document adds that pro-government media in Serbia are the main disseminators of Russian propaganda.

The report goes on to note that the differentiation between head of state and the state itself is being erased as Vucic keeps claiming that he "made this or that possible, as if he had invested his own funds." The analysis stresses that, though marginalized and mostly excluded from political life, the opposition, a few critical media outlets, journalists and politicians are the targets of daily attacks and pillorying by government-affiliated media.