Serbia takes action against Russians who oppose the war in Ukraine with deportations ordered by Russia

When Elena Koposova signed an open letter against Russia’s large-scale invasion of Ukraine, she did not expect a backlash in her new country of choice, Serbia. After all, Serbia was officially seeking to join the European Union by adopting all the democratic values that come with membership, she thought, adding that she now realizes she was wrong.

Two years after signing the letter, the 54-year-old Russian is appealing against a deportation order after being declared a threat to Serbia’s national security and having her residence permit revoked. The literary translator said the only reason she could think of was the anti-war petition she signed, reports The Geopost.

“I’m not an activist, but I signed a letter against the war when the Russian aggression in Ukraine was just beginning,” she said in an interview. “Even though I’m not an activist, I couldn’t keep quiet about it. So I just put my name to the open letter saying that war is a crime and we all need to work together to stop it.”

Koposova is not alone. Serbia has opened its borders in recent years to tens of thousands of Russians fleeing President Vladimir Putin’s government and the war in Ukraine. Russian pro-democracy activists in the Balkan country now say at least a dozen of them have recently been banned from entering the country or had their residence permits revoked on the grounds that they pose a threat to Serbia’s security.

At least eight others are afraid to speak publicly about their legal problems with Serbian authorities because they fear it will only jeopardize their ability to stay in the country with their families, Russian anti-war activists say.

“It was very unexpected, very shocking,” Koposova said of the moment she received the deportation order, which did not explain the reason for the decision, but simply stated that she posed a “threat to national security” and that she would have to leave Serbia for 30 days.

She and her husband have built a modern house on a plot of land in a remote village outside Belgrade, where they live with their two children, aged 6 and 14, who attend local schools and pre-school classes.

Human rights activists say the problems with this stance point to a close relationship between Serbia’s increasingly autocratic president Aleksandar Vucic and Putin, despite Serbia’s formal EU membership bid. Vucic has refused to join the West’s sanctions against the traditional Slavic ally, while allowing Moscow’s propaganda channels such as RT and Sputnik to spread their narratives in the Balkans.

“The authorities in Belgrade and the authorities in Moscow are very close politically,” said Predrag Petrović, research coordinator at the Belgrade Center for Security Policy, an independent think tank that has demanded an explanation from the Interior Ministry for the actions against the Russians.

“People who are critical of the Putin regime pose a great threat to the regime in Moscow,” Petrović said. “For this reason, these people are being targeted by the Serbian authorities.”

Serbian officials have not yet commented on the reported cases involving Russian nationals, and the Serbian Interior Ministry did not respond to an email from The Associated Press requesting an interview or comment on the matter.

Since the start of the war in Ukraine two years ago, many Russians have left for Serbia because they do not need a visa to enter the friendly Balkan state, a potential stepping stone for possible future emigration to the West. Many dodged the draft, while others, like the Koposova family who left early, were simply fed up with Putin’s government and sought a better life somewhere outside Russia.

Peter Nikitin, one of the founders of the pro-democracy Russian Democratic Society, spent two days alone at Belgrade airport last summer when he was refused entry, despite having a Serbian wife and having lived in Serbia for seven years. Nikitin was later allowed to enter Serbia, but legal proceedings regarding his residence papers are still ongoing.

“I have no doubt that this is on direct orders from Russia, either through the embassy or directly from Moscow,” stressed Nikitin, whose group has also organized anti-war protests in Ukraine and demonstrations demanding the freedom of political prisoners, including Alexei Navalny, a Russian opposition leader and Putin critic who died on February 16.

Nikitin said other anti-war activists being scrutinized by Serbian authorities include the co-founder of the RDS group, Vladimir Volokhonsky, who now lives in Germany.

Also under sanctions were Yevgeny Irshansky, who organized concerts by anti-Putin groups in Serbia and has since moved to Argentina with his wife, and Ilya Tsernov, a young Russian who was banned from returning to Serbia after he was attacked by a far-right Serbian nationalist when he tried to erase a mural in the center of Belgrade calling for the death of Ukraine.

Nikitin said the purpose of these actions was to intimidate anti-war activists.

“The only explanation is that they want to scare everyone,” he said. “Because if you can’t sign a letter against the war, you can’t do anything. And it has a chilling effect.”

“The point is that the Russians are protesting against the war here not against anyone in Serbia,” Nikitin said. “We are only worried about our country and our neighboring country, which is now suffering from our country.”

Serbia’s close ties with Russia go back centuries, and the two countries also share a common Slavic origin and Orthodox Christian religion. Russia has backed Serbia’s attempt to maintain its claim to Kosovo, a former province that declared independence in 2008 with Western support./The Geopost/