Why Serbia is Quietly Moving Away from Russia

Despite their historic friendship, Serbia appears to be moving away from Russia's influence with regards to their energy and defence policies. So in this video, we'll take a look at their relationship and why it's come under continued strain recently.

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Sources:

2 - Kosović, N., 2016. What makes Russia so popular in Serbia? Origins of Russian soft power (Doctoral dissertation, Central European University).

[HeiZuKa]

Ironically, the two biggest Russian assets in europe are Hungary and Slovakia which are NATO and EU members.

[louismakesmusic]

That man looks more like a fish than most other men

[darter]

Serbia doesn’t seem to trust Russia’s security guarantees anymore for some reason.

[BaumerPaulGefreiter]

Perhaps the Serbs are frightened by how the Russians protected the brotherly Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh...

[CyrilleParis]

The French fighter jet is not "Raphael", it's "Rafale" which both means a gust (as in a gust of wind) and a burst (as in a burst of gunfire).

[Cokoladni]

it anoying to see Vucics face everytime you say serbia, can you atleast use something that does not imply hes our lord and saviour.

[Holy-Tiramisu]

The war in Ukraine has seen Russia gave up all the soft power they had left in Europe.
And it was just in time for them to realize they don't have any hard power left either.

[milancvejic]

With the west and Russia supporting Vucic at the same time while the majority of the Serbian population is protesting Vucic, seems like neither West or Russia will be our future. Serbia to Serbians

[losmi-ivqt]

Vucic is not Serbia. In fact, he basically represents the dark and corrupted side of it, whereas people protesting on the streets are trying to free Serbia from his bloodied hands. True Serbs don't want wars with neighbors, don't want to be either russian or nato puppet, but to remain neutral and build up relationships with others.

[mikhailkireev]

Blyat I read it “SIBERIA is moving away from Russia” was like wtf hold my vodka

[andrijapfc]

Some well-intentioned criticism, because I like you guys and want you to improve:

- Serbia mentioned as "Russia's closest ally in Europe" - maybe I have a strict definition of the word "ally", but outside of war where 2 countries fighting on the same side are clearly allies, I think an ally needs to be someone you've signed a treaty with. Russia and Serbia have no such treaty. Russia and Serbia are friendly countries with close relations, you can call them "partners", but "allies" they are not and have not been since WW2. Strictly speaking, Serbia has exactly zero allies (unfortunately)

- You talk about Putin supporting Serbian separatism and they you use...Kosovo as an example? The situation when the West not only supported, but enabled Albanian separatism, while Russia was just...upholding the UN Charter and the Helsinki Convention (which it then proceeded to completely trample on in Georgia and then Ukraine, using Kosovo as one of the excuses). Russia is not the one forcibly redrawing borders in the Balkans (unlike in Georgia and Ukraine), only the West did that with Kosovo in 2008.

- With regards of the above: Russia's actions in Georgia and Ukraine DO NOT at all help Serbia's case wrt Kosovo, as they go against the principles of national sovereignty and territorial integrity that Serbia is defending in Kosovo. For this reason Serbia has never supported what Russia is doing in Georgia and Ukraine and has always reaffirmed the territorial integrity of these two countries (this is btw why Georgia and Ukraine never recognized Kosovo's independence, despite Kosovo trying to cozy up to them, because they know it would not be in their own interest from the point of defending the principles of international law). Serbia has never sanctioned Russia for this nor criticized it too loudly and specifically over these issues, because it needs Russia's support on the Kosovo front (plus the energy supplies you mention), but the position was always clear: not in favour. When the war in Ukraine began in 2022, Serbia from the very start voted for all of the UN, OSCE, etc. resolutions condemning the attack and reaffirming Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity. So when Vucic says "we never supported the invasion" - he's not lying (a rare occurrence!).

- The French jet's name is prounounced Rah-ff-ahl, not Raphael, and when talking about you showed a picture of an F/A-18 :) c'mon guys it's not an exotic jet don't drop the ball :)

The rest of the video is pretty spot-on.

[besargergi]

Serbia is moving away from Russia, not towards the West, but towards China. In the last three years China has been the largest investor in Serbia and second largest trade partner. It is the first country in Europe to sign Common Future Declaration with China -- the highest form of strategic partnership of Beijing.

[cyclone]

Russia doesnt care about Serbia. Just has interests.

[Felixxxxxxxxx]

Back when I occasionally watched Russian state media, I remember a program where they went to Serbia and declared it Russia's closest ally. They praised everything about Serbia. Russia and Serbia share a long history of generally positive relations, and it would be a major loss for Russia to lose their last "true ally" in the West. For Russia, maintaining the appearance of a strong bond with Serbia seems even more crucial than for Serbia itself. It seems to me that Serbia is playing its cards strategically. I'm not a fan of Vučić, but I have to admit, it's a well-played move.

[olbiomoiros]

Russia was only protector of ‘Orthodox people’ when there were still Tsars. It’s time to get over this unrequited love.

[aleksajankovic]

“Teško onom koga Kina hrani i Rusija brani.”

[Kulawkh]

Can you make a video about Bosnian government collapse?

[Krannski]

Yesterday I heard that Vucic looks like chudjak and I can't unsee it

[rubenfigueiredo]

This isn't a complaint, but an observation, I don't think I've ever heard anyone name the Rafale jets properly. People simply don't compute that it's not named after a teenage mutant ninja turtle.

[AduckButSpain]

If Vučić seem tall for you, he is. He is 1.99 meters tall. Second tallest president in history after Filip Vujanović (2.01 m) of Montenegro. Apparently, some Serbian king is also the tallest king in confirmed recorded history... those are tall people...