Serbia has been negotiating its EU membership for almost a decade. At the same time, it maintains an extremely close relationship with Russia. Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic often refers to Moscow’s role as a protecting power, Deutsche Welle reports.

Serbia’s closeness to Russia is also reflected in the various surveys and polls. A year after the start of the war in Ukraine, the majority of Serbs believe that Russia was not responsible for the attack. 66% believe the West is responsible for the war in Ukraine while only 21% hold Russia responsible. The research was published by the Serbian NGO “New Third Way”.

According to another recent study, the Russian media contributes greatly to such a view. The report is entitled “The Russian Media in the Balkans and their role in the war of aggression against Ukraine”. It was published at the end of July by the political Friedrich Naumann Foundation and was written by Thomas Bray, who was for many years head of the German News Agency (dpa).

With the support of the Serbian elite

Russian media such as RT Balkans (formerly Russia Today) and Sputnik have modern press offices in Belgrade and offer daily news in Serbian.

According to Thomas Bray, this is Russian propaganda media, spreading the view not only of official Russian policy, but also the image of Serbia as a victim of a Western conspiracy. At the same time, he points out that “Russia is unreservedly on the side of Serbia in any conflict, especially when it comes to Kosovo”, which became independent in 2008 and Belgrade still does not recognize it.

But the Russian media’s influence would be limited if they did not have the support of Serbia’s political elite under President Aleksandar Vucic. Most of the country’s media is under Vucic’s control. Russian President Vladimir Putin is a role model for his Serbian counterpart, says Thomas Bray.

News from another universe

In the exhibition of Thomas Bray, some prints that seem to come from another world are of particular interest. “Ukraine attacked Russia!” was the headline of the Informer newspaper on 22.02.2022, two days before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The newspaper Srpski Telegraf wrote on 4.07.2022: “The Americans and the British admitted: Putin won the war!” and the Pecat newspaper emphasized in October 2022: “Putin: The collapse of Western hegemony is irreversible.”

Tomas Bray considers that it is important for the restoration of the truth to inform the young Serbs and exchanges-visits with their peers in various Western countries. Furthermore, it considers the training of young Serbian journalists and the financial and technical support of independent and critical media extremely important. Finally, according to the author of the study, the EU has specific means to put pressure on the Serbian elite. For example, the EU is the largest investor as well as the largest trade and economic partner of Serbia, so it could help to bring about important reforms in justice and the functioning of the media.