Serbia cancels the residence permit of the Russian activist

Serbian authorities have canceled the residence permit of Yevgeny Irshansky, the Russian citizen who has organized anti-war concerts and other cultural events in Serbia, the organization Russian Democratic Society announced. This is the latest in a series of decisions authorities have taken against Russian expatriates who oppose the war.

Irzhansky, who has been an event organizer in Serbia since 2022, recently received a long-term residence permit in Serbia. His wife had received the same permit.

On August 28, he was invited to the Russian Foreign Ministry and questioned by a ministry employee about his activities as a concert organizer. The employee then made Irzhansky wait and later returned to tell him that his residence permit had been canceled.

He was not given a reason for the decision, but Irzhansky was given a letter to sign indicating that he posed a “threat to Serbia’s national security,” the Belgrade-based Russian Democratic Society said.

Irzhansky was given a week to leave Serbia and banned from entering the country for a year. He plans to appeal the decision, the Russian Democratic Society said.

Irzhansky told Radio Free Europe that his work, as well as his attitude toward Russia’s occupation of Ukraine, were the reasons authorities in Serbia canceled his residence permit.

“Most Russian musicians are blacklisted in Russia, and most of them live outside Russia, because if they go to Russia, they are likely to be imprisoned for their views on the war and on [Russian President Vladimir] Putin,” he said.

“My positions on this are clear, I am against Putin’s policies inside and outside Russia.”

Other Russians who have been critical of the Kremlin or the war on Ukraine have complained of being harassed by authorities in Serbia, whose President Aleksandar Vucic maintains good relations with Putin despite European Union pressure to impose sanctions on the Kremlin. , Belgrade has not sanctioned Moscow.

Earlier this month, Natasha Tyshkevich, a former journalist for the Russian student magazine Doxa – who publicly criticized Russian officials – accused Russian authorities of detaining her for about 40 hours at Nikola Tesla Airport in Belgrade after she was denied entry into the state. She then returned to her residence in Malta.

In July, Serbia did not renew the temporary residence permit of anti-war activist Vladimir Volokhonsky. Meanwhile, two weeks before that event, Serbian authorities denied entry to Peter Nikitin, a Russian who, along with Volochonski, had been involved in founding the Russian Democratic Society, an association for exiled Russians.

Source: www.evropaelire.org