Analysis | Serbian pro-Russian media is gas outside the pipes, which is burning not only Ukrainian freedom

The Russian lie that the AIDS virus was produced in American laboratories was first published in a pro-Soviet (pro-Russian) Indian newspaper called “Patriot” in 1983. Two years later, referring to this article, the Russians launched a campaign to discredit the US. All this disinformation operation, later called “Infection” was led by the KGB from Moscow.

Needing to somehow counter the accusations of democracies about Russian aggression in Ukraine, the Kremlin is looking for allies, and especially the allied media.

Referring to the Allied media, as in the case of AIDS, Putin’s media create other false narratives about the war in Ukraine.

In this regard, Serbia’s government-controlled media and many other Serbian media outlets in the Western Balkans are playing an important role in reinforcing the Kremlin’s voice in the Ukraine war. They have become a very useful amplifier for Putin’s media.

Serbia, in addition to not imposing sanctions on Russia over the war in Ukraine, is assisting the Kremlin in what it needs most. The media controlled by Aleksandar Vuicic are the biggest help Russia needs from its “little Serb brother”.

Technically, Putin, in order to keep the Russian people, calm and not opposed to his regime, feeds them with false narrative, not only about the Ukraine war, but for every policy of his power.

To keep the Russian people drugged, the Kremlin needs to reflect its narrative through another voice, a non-Russian voice.

And this reinforcing voice, as Putin needs it, comes mostly from Serbia. Such a voice also comes from the Chinese controlled media, as said a research of the US State Department. But when it comes to referring to non-Russian media, what importance does it have for Kremlin if it refers to a Serbian or Chinese media?

To make this Serbian media support as credible as possible, the Kremlin and the Russian intelligence services invested in Serbia very early on. The support of the Serbian media for Russia is not only in relation to Ukraine. It started much earlier. At least, since the time when the media was controlled by Aleksandar Vucic.

The Kremlin’s intention to deceive the Russian people with a false narrative in relation to the war in Ukraine would not make sense if the perpetrator is the same – that is, the Russian intelligence services. The aim is to spread the false Russian narrative to as many non-Russian media as possible. To make the geographical map of where these supporting media come from as wide as possible.

Therefore, the Serbs have offered the greatest support to Putin. In addition to media from Serbia, there are media from other Balkan countries that support Russian aggression. It does not matter if they are from the same kitchen – from Belgrade. Importantly, the list of media outlets referring to Putin’s media is growing.

Why does it matter if the media from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo or Montenegro are Serbian and controlled by Vucic? It is important that they declare the same as “Sputnik” that “Bucha was a Ukrainian fabrication”, as they state that “Recak was a fabrication of the KLA and NATO”.

It is important that the Russian narrative is told by as many media outlets as possible from as many countries as possible.

In this sense, the Serbs, and especially Aleksandar Vucic, by controlling the Serbian media in Belgrade, and some Serbian media that he finances in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo and Montenegro, do the greatest service to Vladimir Putin.

Citing Serbian, Chinese or any other non-democratic media, e.g. Syrian media controlled by dictator Bashar Al Assad, the Kremlin manages to keep the Russian people deceived in relation to Ukraine.

In this form, a wide circle of quotations is created, despite the fact that the voice of those who speak is the same. The author is the same. The author is based in Moscow, although the article as such can be published in Belgrade, Beijing or Damascus; in Banja Luka – Bosnia, Zvecan – Kosovo, or somewhere in a Montenegrin town.

There are many media outlets in Serbia that are under Vucic’s control. All these are in the service of the Kremlin narrative for Ukraine. In fact, they serve the Kremlin’s narrative more than the Serbian national interest. Belgrade tabloids “Informer”, “Novosti”, “Objektiv”, “Vesti”, “Srpski Telegraf”, “Alo”, “Kurir”, “Politika” etc., then most of the Serbian televisions, hundreds of online media and hundreds of thousands fake social profiles (trolls & bots), are the most useful Serbian army that can help Vladimir Putin, not only in the fight against Ukraine.

In Kosovo, where Serbs make up less than 8% of the population, there are several online media outlets that depend on funding from Belgrade. For example, “Kosovo-Online”, is a media that in addition to broadcasting pro-Russian news, it is often quoted by the controlled media in power in Moscow.

In BiH, the Serbian media called “Glas Srpske” openly represents the interests of the Kremlin. The Russian Embassy in this country often publishes columns in the Serbian media in BiH. “IN4S” from Montenegro has also sent a reporter among the Russian fighters to Ukraine.

If Prigozhin’s Russian paramilitary group called “Wagner” is charged with monstrous crimes in many countries, then the pro-Russian media disinformation network group commits the same crimes, but from which there is no blood.

EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Joseph Borrell called the Russian media “an integral part of the aggression in Ukraine.” He had stated that, “war is not only about bombing homes, infrastructure and people, but also about bombing the minds and souls of people.

Unlike Operation Infection, in which it was rumored that the US had created the AIDS virus in the laboratory to kill people, which had lasted 2 years until the final Soviet attempt to discredit the US, today the Serbian amplifying media helps the Kremlin LIVE.

In the age of the Internet, it is extremely easy for the Russian disinformation machine to launch voices against Ukraine, but also against NATO, as well as against Kosovo, by any Serbian media.

In defining its path, Serbia must urgently learn to speak. This is not about “freedom of expression”. The word of the Serbian media is different. It is the word that bombs Ukraine in the first place.

The word of the Serbian media is a word spoken by Putin’s brain, by his disinformation kitchen, which is not intended to be merely a misinformation, but is intended to kill the Ukrainian nation; to kill perhaps another nation tomorrow; to really kill European liberal politics, and above all to kill the critical mind of the Russian people.

On the contrary, these Serbian media should be sanctioned, at least, as the media controlled by Putin himself!

Serbian media do more harm to the freedom of Ukraine and Europe than whether or not Serbia is supplied with Russian gas.

After all, Russian gas is used in Serbia for heating, where the Serbian pro-Russian media is a gas outside the pipes, which is burning freedom and democratic life!

G. Venhari – The Geopost