Possible security risks’ in serbian passports for russian citizens

The latest European Commission report on Serbia’s progress states that granting Serbian citizenship to Russian nationals “represents a potential security risk” to the EU.

The number of government decisions on granting Serbian citizenship to Russian nationals has been increasing since 2022, when Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine.

Serbian citizenship, under a special procedure defined by law, is granted to foreign nationals if it “represents an interest for Serbia.”

The granting of Serbian citizenship to Russian nationals—and consequently a Serbian passport, which allows them to travel freely to European Union countries—was mentioned as a “possible security risk” to the EU in the latest report on Serbia’s progress as a candidate country.

Out of a total of 121 Serbian Government decisions on granting citizenship in 2025, almost two-thirds pertain to Russian nationals. This is based on Radio Free Europe’s (RFE) analysis of the decisions published in the Official Gazette.

This involves a special procedure under which citizens of other countries can obtain Serbian citizenship if it represents an “interest for Serbia.”

However, that number could be higher, given that data on citizenships granted under the regular procedure, which are decided by the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) of Serbia, are not publicly available.

The number of Government decisions on granting Serbian citizenship to Russian nationals has been increasing since 2022, when Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine, according to data RFE collected from decisions published in the Official Gazette.

The Government of Serbia did not answer RFE’s questions by the time the text was finalized regarding whether and what concrete measures it will take to address this issue, and what criteria guided its decisions on granting Serbian citizenship.

Discrepancy in Foreign and Security Policy

The issue of granting Serbian passports to Russian nationals is contained in the section of the European Commission report that relates to Serbia’s alignment with the EU’s Common Foreign and Security Policy.

“The acquisition of visa-free travel rights to the EU for Russian citizens through the granting of Serbian citizenship represents a potential security risk for the European Union,” states the European Commission report, which the Head of the EU Delegation in Belgrade, Andreas von Beckerath, handed to Serbian officials on November 6.

Serbia has a visa-free regime with the EU, allowing Serbian citizens to travel without visas to the European bloc countries since December 2009.

Igor Novaković, from the non-governmental Center for International and Security Affairs (ISAC Fund), assesses for RFE that the decision to grant citizenship may be based on “Serbia’s interest”, but also on its possible significance for Serbian-Russian bilateral relations.

“In other words, there are some requests in a dialogue between Belgrade and Moscow, or it is a service where Belgrade grants citizenship to certain individuals who may be problematic for the European Union from a security perspective,” Novaković explains.

In 2023, the Government of Serbia abandoned amendments to the Law on Citizenship that would have enabled an easier procedure for foreign nationals to obtain a Serbian passport after three years of permanent residence. That proposed amendment was met with sharp criticism from Brussels, which warned that adopting the relaxations could jeopardize Serbia’s visa-free regime with the EU.

Two Paths to Serbian Citizenship

According to the Law on Citizenship, there are two ways for foreign nationals to obtain Serbian citizenship.

A foreigner who has been granted permanent residence in Serbia may, upon personal request, obtain citizenship provided they are over 18 years of age and capable of working. The conditions also include having a release from their foreign citizenship, three years of continuous registered residence in Serbia, and submitting a written statement that they consider Serbia their country.

The Ministry of Internal Affairs decides on the granting of citizenship. This data is not publicly available.

According to Article 19 of the same law, Serbian citizenship can also be granted to a foreigner who does not meet the required conditions, but whose naturalization “would represent an interest” for Serbia.

What are the possible consequences?

Serbia, with 63 percent, has a low rate of alignment with the EU’s Common Foreign and Security Policy, according to the European Commission.

Furthermore, official Belgrade refuses to align with the EU sanctions against Russia, which all other Western Balkan countries have done.

According to Novaković, the low alignment rate could first have political, and then economic consequences.

“I do not expect any harsher measures in that regard, but we will see—if the reforms linked to the reform agenda are not implemented, there will be no money from that fund; that is very clear,” he says.

He points out that immediately before the European Commission’s report, Serbia “retroactively” aligned with some EU foreign policy declarations, thereby improving its performance, but that the long-term low alignment rate suggests a “tactical” move.

“One of the consequences of this action is the strengthening of distrust in the EU member states themselves, primarily in those that directly border or fall into the zone close to the Russian Federation. I am primarily thinking of the Scandinavian, Central European, and Baltic countries,” says Novaković.

Serbia has been negotiating EU membership since 2014. It has not opened a single chapter or cluster in accession negotiations for more than three years.

How many Russians are in Serbia?

Immediately after the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, direct flights between Moscow and Belgrade and the visa-free regime between Serbia and Russia meant that tens of thousands of Russian citizens have since passed through Serbia, some fleeing mobilization, but also to continue doing business freely with the West.

A number of them have remained in Serbia. According to the latest available data from the Serbian MIA, which RFE received upon a request for free access to information of public importance in January, slightly more than 48,000 Russian citizens had temporary residence in Serbia.

In the census held in October 2022, the number of Russians tripled compared to the previous 2011 census. The official census statistics, which included all citizens residing in Serbia for a year or less but intending to stay in the country for some time, recorded more than 10,000 citizens who declared themselves as Russians. This ranked them as the 16th largest minority community in Serbia. By comparison, they were the 20th largest in 2011./RSE/