Serbia and Russia united: ‘Disobedient’ Russians will be expelled from Belgrade

The Russian Democratic Society of Belgrade, which is made up of members of the Russian emigre community opposed to the war in Ukraine, said in a statement that the text published by the Russian publication Russia Today (RT) was “an outright attempt to intimidate the Russian diaspora in Serbia following Vladimir Putin’s dramatic defeat in the elections of Russian citizens in Belgrade on 17 March.

Citing its sources close to the Serbian authorities, RT reported that the Serbian special services are planning to expel a number of protesting Russians from the country.

Their source attributes this to the active participation of “the opposition segment of Russians in actions of disobedience and protests against the results of the parliamentary elections in Belgrade in December 2023”.

Sources close to the Serbian executive told RT that during the protests by the local opposition over the results of the December parliamentary elections, they observed the active participation of liberal-leaning individuals from Russia at meetings in Belgrade.

The source notes that this is not the first time that the Serbian authorities have warned of “destructive activity by some Russian activists and their contacts with local opposition forces”.

RT announces that the Serbian security services will cooperate with Moscow in pursuing such persons in order to facilitate their expulsion from the country.

In an article by the Russian state media for a Russian, but not Serbian, audience, RT quotes the Russian Democratic Society as saying that it is in possession of information according to which “the security services of Serbia, in cooperation with Moscow” are preparing the expulsion of “liberal-minded migrants” from Russia, allegedly for “their contacts with Serbian opposition forces” and “active participation” in “protest actions by the local opposition against the results of the December parliamentary elections in Serbia”, including the “blockade of institutions”. in the Serbian capital”.

They point out that the term “relocant” is commonly used to refer to Russians who left their homeland after the start of Russia’s large-scale aggression against Ukraine on 24 February 2022.

They say that they are not aware of any Russian “relocants” who “actively participated” in the December protests, let alone in any “blockades”.

Since their arrival, Russian citizens in Serbia have been actively protesting, they say, against the bloody war and murderous dictatorship of Vladimir Putin.

They stress that they do not interfere in Serbian political issues unless it is the Russian diaspora, nor is it in the interests of people who have only recently become acquainted with Serbia and most of whom have not even learned the Serbian language to interfere in Serbian politics. .

The Russian Democratic Society also does not currently maintain any “contacts with Serbian opposition forces”, nor is it aware of any such contacts by any part of the new Russian diaspora.

At the same time, we are “extremely concerned about the suggestion that mere ‘contacts’ with the Serbian opposition or participation in any protest actions could be a reason to exclude anyone. This, they stress, would constitute a flagrant violation of the Constitution, laws and international obligations of the Republic of Serbia, which guarantee freedom of opinion, expression and assembly to everyone on the territory of Serbia, regardless of nationality, and prohibit any discrimination based on political opinion.

They recall that individual cases of unjustified “negative security assessments” by the Security Information Agency (BIA) regarding a number of their activists and sympathisers, which they have been facing since the summer of 2023, “unfortunately confirm that our concerns are not completely unfounded.”

It is believed that the aim of the article, combined with some attempts at unreasonable expulsion of Russian citizens, is “to bring discord to the Russian diaspora in Serbia and to separate as much as possible the activist part of it from the majority of citizens, in order to prevent many demonstrations of disloyalty to the dictator Putin by Russians in Serbia in the future, such as the one we witnessed in the vote on 17 March”.

They say that they will continue to oppose attempts to deport fellow citizens unjustifiably and illegally and that any such attempts that become public will not go without a legal, media and political response.

Finally, they call on all state bodies in Serbia, in particular the BIA, “to break all relations with the criminal and illegitimate regime of Vladimir Putin, to refrain from complying with the illegitimate demands and requests of this regime, and to be guided in their work exclusively by the Constitution, laws and international obligations of the Republic of Serbia”.

Ivana Stradner of the Foundation for the Defence of Democracies in Washington, D.C., commenting on the case on the X network, wrote that it was “an example of Russian-Serbian collaboration”.

Recall that information about the possible deportation emerged just a few days after the presidential elections in Russia. Vladimir Putin was defeated in the elections held at the Russian embassy in Belgrade at the weekend, where he received only 10.84% of the vote amid a large turnout (4,700 Russians took part), according to data from the Central Electoral Commission of Russia .

Most Russians in Belgrade voted for Vladislav Davankov (67% of the vote), which for many was just a form of protest.

At the same time, the President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vucic, who clearly does not share the protest mood of the Russians, was among the few European leaders who congratulated Putin on his election victory.

/The Geopost