BELGRADE – I love Russia and I love Putin. Putin is a real man.
So says the smartly dressed Tanja Ilić On a sophisticated pedestrian street in Belgrade on a sunny Saturday afternoon before May Day.
As if for reassurance, the Serbian woman shows her mobile phone. Familiar, small eyes stare from the background photo. Putin’s eyes.
Ilić is a good-natured and tough woman, but she doesn’t want to be photographed. He says he supports Russia in its war of aggression in Ukraine and claims that he himself would go to war for Russia if he were younger.
Such a statement is not unusual or surprising in Serbia. The majority of Serbians admire the Russian president Vladimir Putin and supports this administration.
Souvenir stalls in the center of Belgrade sell t-shirts, coffee mugs and fridge magnets with Putin’s image on them.
The shop also has shirts with the mercenary army Wagner logo or the symbol of the Russian war of aggression, the letter Z.
One shirt seller says that it is the Putin shirts that sell best.
The sale of such crap on the parade streets of Belgrade is confusing, but somehow consistent. By many measures, Serbia is the most pro-Russian country in Europe, even in the middle of the war.
According to opinion polls, the majority of Serbs consider Russia to be Serbia’s most important partner and admire Putin without reservation.
In polls, Putin’s popularity has been at least 60 percent.
A large number of Serbs also blame the West for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
At least 150,000 Russians have moved to Serbia, primarily to Belgrade, after the war of aggression started by Russia.
Already every tenth person in Belgrade with a population of 1.4 million is Russian. You can hear Russian being spoken in the city center here.
Serbia is not involved in the sanctions front
Most of the Russian newcomers are opposition-minded liberals, and for some of them the charming attitude towards Russia of the Serbians has come as a surprise.
This happened despite the fact that they were able to move to Belgrade easily, because Serbia, as the only European country, is not involved in sanctions against Russia, precisely because of its pro-Russian sentiment. Direct flights between Moscow and Belgrade will continue.
A so-called graffiti war is going on in the streets of Belgrade.
The street photo shows anti-NATO and pro-Russia graffiti. They are constantly covered up by anti-war activists.
There is very little support for Ukraine. The only Ukrainian flag we see is on the balcony of the cultural center Krokodil.
The flag flutters a bit on Tuesday evening, when a Serbian language lesson is taking place inside for the Russians who have moved here.
A dozen or so young Russians are learning the basics of Serbian in the cultural center’s small cafe. The atmosphere is calm.
The students are hopping on their cell phones and chatting quietly.
After the language lesson, 30 years old Lena Morozova tells about his conflicting moods.
– The pro-Russia attitude of ordinary Serbians was a shock to me. It was a shock to discover that Serbia is like Russia’s lap dog.
Morozova, who is from Syktyvkar, the capital of the Republic of Komi, moved to Serbia a little over a year ago.
– The first weeks were difficult. It was hard to accept that people support Putin. The Putin shirts and posters were confusing, says a woman working in the IT industry.
Morozova states that she has understood that Serbians’ pro-Russian attitude is largely due to propaganda.
The media controlled by the Serbian regime is sympathetic to Russia.
Still, it is difficult for Morozova to grasp the special relationship between Serbia and Russia.
– I don’t understand why Serbia is so attached to Russia. I find it really strange.
Morozova’s relationship with her parents, who are in Russia and support the Putin regime, have cooled.
– We don’t talk much anymore. At the beginning of the war, I sent my mother the news about the events in Butša. He answered it very sadly. I don’t want to say what he said because it was so awful. I asked that we no longer talk about the Russian invasion, because otherwise our relationship will be forever.
Morozova says many of her Russian friends are in a similar situation. He sees a similarity with Serbians in this.
– Older Serbs are more difficult. They are more difficult to deal with. You can talk to young people here, because they are not necessarily supporters of Putin.
Aleksandr says that he left at the last minute
Neither Aleksandr Alekseev one can’t help but loathe the Serbs’ admiration for Putin.
We meet 24-year-old Russian Alekseev in the park of his current home in the Zemun district of Belgrade. Zemun is a middle-class and park-like area near the banks of the Danube. We will do the interview in a small church next to the park.
– I did know about the Serbians’ preference for Putin. I knew how to prepare for it. I still have a hard time understanding it.
Alekseev says that he drifted into conversations with Serbians who love Putin.
– It was unpleasant. They see Putin as a hero fighting the US and NATO.
Alekseev states that the Serbs’ pro-Russia attitude is not a problem as long as it doesn’t happen to him. He tells about the abuse of a Russian activist by the neo-Nazis.
– If you don’t encounter pro-Putin people, it won’t cause any problems. Maybe the radicals will still abuse me too, and I will change my mind.
Alekseev says that he left Russia at the last minute, right before he could be drafted. He came to Serbia at the end of September, i.e. just days after the business launch announced in Russia. We had to leave home quickly.
– I realized that it is not possible for me to stay. I was afraid, says the man who has opposed Putin’s regime since he was 15 years old.
Alekseev had previously been abroad only to Ukraine.
The young man has not made many friends in Belgrade. He says that he follows war news almost obsessively.
– I don’t know a single Russian here who supports Putin or the war or who doesn’t wish for Ukraine’s victory. Russian society is liberal.
So far, there have been no rifts between liberal Russians and ordinary Serbians who support Putin. However, the neo-Nazis have harassed Russian activists participating in the demonstrations. Alekseev himself has participated in protests against the war and the Russian regime.
– It was amazing that the police protected us. In Russia, the police would have beaten us. It’s incredible that you can express your opinion freely here.
Researcher: Serbs’ attitude towards Russia is in a way counterintuitive
Orthodoxy and Slavic brotherhood are often used to explain the special relationship and alliance between Serbia and Russia.
This is what a researcher specializing in Serbian and Russian relations says Vuk Vuksanovic.
However, according to him, the mythical explanation is incomplete.
– It is about Serbian memories from the 1990s. And about the fact that Russia has not recognized Kosovo’s independence. The pro-Russian newspapers under the control of the administration have also influenced this. The Serbian government cannot change its course in relation to Russia without angering a significant part of the people. You can say that the Serbian administration is in its own trap.
Serbians are bitter about the 1999 NATO bombings and the loss of Kosovo.
NATO bombed Serbia during the breakup wars of Yugoslavia in response to the Serbian army’s invasion and ethnic cleansing in the Albanian-majority Kosovo.
Serbia has applied for EU membership, but negotiations have not progressed. The EU has lost its appeal in Serbia.
Serbia is not involved in the sanctions against Russia, and Vuksanovic does not believe that the country will be behind all sanctions in the future either. According to the researcher, the Serbs’ preference for Russia is a great paradox.
– All of Serbia’s most important partnerships in the economy and security are with the governments of Western countries. The EU is Serbia’s most important trading partner.
According to Vuksanovic, Russia’s influence in Serbia is exaggerated.
– Russia has influence as a gas supplier, as a party to the Kosovo dispute, and through the fact that Russia is so popular among the people. Russia has used this quite skillfully. It is also the reason why Serbian leaders are still playing the Russia card.
Serbia and Russia renewed the gas agreement a year ago after Russia already attacked Ukraine. 90 percent of Serbia’s gas comes from Russia.
Vuksanovic explains Putin’s popularity as a leader by the fact that Putin has opposed the United States.
According to the researcher, Putin has become a phenomenon in Serbia.
– Putin has become part of pop culture. The editor-in-chief of one magazine said that the magazine is always sold out when Putin’s picture is on the cover.
The Everyday World Politics program asks why Serbia balances between the West and Russia: