📆 ANNOUNCEMENT: On June 27 at 12:00 noon Moscow time, the Valdai Club will host an expert discussion on the political situation in Serbia and the prospects for bilateral relations with Russia.

In recent weeks, the internal political situation in Serbia has significantly worsened.  Tensions have resulted in civil protests, and the presence of Kosovo special forces in the Serbian part of the province have led to an aggravation of the situation in the self-proclaimed Republic of Kosovo. Against the backdrop of these events, Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić has admitted the possibility that early parliamentary elections may be held. 

Commenting on the situation in Serbia back in May, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov noted that "a big explosion is brewing in the centre of Europe." At the same time, judging by the statements of representatives of the EU and the US, this time they lay the responsibility for the escalation, to a certain extent, on the authorities of the so-called Republic of Kosovo (unrecognized by Russia), and not only on the Serbian community or Belgrade.

President Vučić has repeatedly spoken publicly about the heavy pressure on Serbia from the EU and the US to change its approach towards Russia. Although the Serbian authorities are making efforts to resist the pressure, the leader of the republic noted that the country "will follow the European path while maintaining friendly relations with other states." In this regard, experts are concerned about whether Belgrade has to reconsider relations with Moscow and how long the country will be able to resist the influence of the West.

❓What are the political alignments inside Serbia at this stage?
❓How can the attitude towards Russia in Serbia change if opposition forces win the elections?
❓What are the dynamics of the further development of the conflict in Kosovo?

Participants of the discussion will try to answer these and other questions.

🎙 Speakers:

🇷🇺 Oleg Bondarenko, director of the Progressive Policy Foundation

🇷🇺🇷🇸 Alexander Botsan-Kharchenko, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Russian Federation to the Republic of Serbia

🇷🇸 Aleksandar Rakovich, Chief Researcher, Institute of Contemporary History of Serbia

🇷🇸 Milana Živanović, researcher at the Institute of Contemporary History of Serbia

Moderator:

🚩 Oleg Barabanov, programme director of the Valdai Discussion Club

https://valdaiclub.com/events/announcements/valdai-club-to-discuss-the-situation-in-serbia/

Working languages: Russian, English.

ℹ️ Information for the media: In order to get accredited for the event, please fill out the form on our web site. If you have any questions about the event, please call +79269307763 

A link to the live broadcast of the discussion will be posted on all online platforms of the Valdai Club: on the website, Twitter, Telegram and Dzen.

#Norms_and_Values #Serbia #Kosovo

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📆 TOMORROW, on June 27 at 12:00 noon Moscow time, the Valdai Club will host an expert discussion on the political situation in Serbia and the prospects for bilateral relations with Russia.

❓What are the political alignments inside Serbia at this stage?
❓How can the attitude towards Russia in Serbia change if opposition forces win the elections?
❓What are the dynamics of the further development of the conflict in Kosovo?

Participants of the discussion will try to answer these and other questions.

A link to the live broadcast of the discussion will be posted on all online platforms of the Valdai Club: on the website, Twitter, Telegram and Dzen.

#Norms_and_Values #Serbia #Kosovo

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UPD: The livestream is over. The video of the discussion is available via the same link. Stay tuned!

🎥 LIVE: at 12:00 noon Moscow time, we are starting an expert discussion on the political situation in Serbia and the prospects for bilateral relations with Russia.

https://vk.com/video-214192832_456239103

#Norms_and_Values #Serbia #Kosovo

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🇷🇸🇷🇺 Serbia: Western Pressure and National Interests

On June 27, the Valdai Club hosted an expert discussion on the political situation in Serbia and the country’s prospects for bilateral relations with Russia.

💬 Moderator Oleg Barabanov, programme director of the Valdai Club, noted that the leadership of Serbia, despite unprecedented pressure from the West, has taken a special position regarding Russia and the conflict in Ukraine. He also invited the participants to pay attention to the dynamics of the Kosovo conflict and internal political processes in Serbia that could affect relations with Russia.

💬 Alexander Botsan-Kharchenko, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Russian Federation to the Republic of Serbia, stressed that President Alexandar Vučić and Serbian public opinion do not accept the anti-Russian course of the West, and that Serbia is a country where Russophobia is out of the question. At the same time, it is important that Serbia remains a candidate for EU membership and does not abandon European priorities in its policy, as well as cooperation with Russia and China. “What fundamentally infuriates the West is the ability of Serbia and its leadership in these conditions to remain in positions of protecting their own national interests, act in a sovereign manner and defend their own national policy,” the ambassador said.

💬 Aleksandar Raković, Chief Researcher at the Institute of Contemporary History of Serbia, confirmed that almost the entire population of Serbia has taken a pro-Russian position, but at the same time, the Serbs retain their European priorities. He pointed out the unusual fact that a country located in the heart of Europe has not joined the pan-European wave of anti-Russian sanctions and Russophobic sentiment. Raković noted that against this background, Pristina is trying to take advantage of the fact that the West is putting pressure on Serbia.

💬 Oleg Bondarenko, director of the Progressive Policy Foundation, briefly analysed the internal political situation in Serbia and the situation around Kosovo. According to him, Serbia is now in "not the most serious political crisis in the last ten years." There is a certain political turbulence, but previous episodes were worse, the expert believes. He has a similar opinion about the state of affairs in Kosovo. “I have no reason to believe that this year something will change and we will witness the hot phase of the war in the Balkans,” Bondarenko said. “The West is not ready for two hot wars in Europe at the same time.” This would mean plunging into a situation of uncontrolled chaos, and the West still prefers controlled chaos, he noted.

💬 Milana Živanović, a researcher at the Institute of Contemporary History of Serbia, said that Serbia rejects the values artificially imposed by the West. “Faith, family, and motherland are sacred for the Serbs,” she stressed. According to her, Western representatives are also constantly demanding that the Serbian authorities impose sanctions against Russia, but Belgrade continues to resist this. The majority of the country's population also opposes the imposition of anti-Russian sanctions. Speaking about the reasons for this, Zivanovich pointed to the centuries-old ties between Russia and Serbia.

https://valdaiclub.com/events/posts/articles/serbia-western-pressure-and-national-interests/

#Norms_and_Values #Serbia #Kosovo

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🇷🇸🇷🇺 Serbia today remains practically the only state in Europe that, to one degree or another, maintains a dialogue with Russia.

🔹 At the moment, Serbia has not agreed to implement the West’s sanctions against Russia.
🔹 Between our two countries, air transit is maintained - the only direct regular flights between Russia and Europe outside the post-Soviet states and Turkey.
🔹 Trade ties are developing and cultural and humanitarian cooperation remains at a high level.

This special position of Serbia towards Russia has its own objective reasons.

1️⃣ One of them is the countries’ shared historical memory, as our perspectives resonate in several key respects. One of them is connected with the events of the recent past, with Russia's support for Serbia and Serbian society during the conflicts of the 1990s, which had an especially serious impact on the country. During the events that followed, connected both with the dynamics around Kosovo and with other aspects, Russia was also firmly on the side of Serbia.

2️⃣ Second, a large layer of common historical memory is associated with the perception of the much more distant past, both the events of the 19th and early 20th centuries, and the eras preceding them. Orthodox unity has played and continues to play an important role here.

As a result, we can conclude that in the context of Russian-Serbian relations, historical memory has a direct and undeniable political significance. It determines not only a certain consonance in the orientations of the societies of our two countries, but also direct interests in political approaches on the part of the authorities of the two states.

Thus, the Russian-Serbian example can be considered a testament to the fact that historical memory is actually the very “soft power” that is much talked about in political theory, writes Oleg Barabanov, Programme Director of the Valdai Discussion Club.

https://valdaiclub.com/a/highlights/russia-and-serbia-in-the-modern-world/

#Norms_and_Values #Serbia

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🇷🇸🇷🇺 Since the beginning of Russia's special military operation to protect the inhabitants of Donbass, Western pressure on Serbia has been constant.

Demands to impose sanctions on Russia are put forward by representatives of Western countries at every meeting with the country's leadership, regardless of the topic under discussion. Appeals to implement the anti-Russian measures are contained even in congratulatory telegrams.

The West is not limited to political pressure and the adoption of resolutions; it also threatens to tighten the visa regime and introduce economic restrictions, given the fact that the EU is Serbia's largest trading partner. In fact, it has threatened the imposition of sanctions against the country.

However, no sanctions against Russia have been imposed so far, and the Russian media outlets have not been closed down.

Refusing to support anti-Russian measures, the Serbian leadership takes into account, first of all, its political interests, as the Russian Federation supports the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Serbia, but also the opinions and moods of the country's inhabitants. 

Despite the geopolitical realities, all the challenges and difficulties that both sides face, relations between Russia and Serbia are strong at the present stage. If the history of bilateral relations teaches us anything, it is that if Russian-Serbian relations worsen, they will quickly improve, because contacts and ties remain.

Centuries-old spiritual and cultural ties, the historical past and historical memory have been and remain the guarantee of good bilateral relations, writes Milana Živanović.

https://valdaiclub.com/a/highlights/politics-geopolitics-history-russian-serbian/

#Norms_and_Values #Serbia

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🇷🇸🇷🇺 Serbs were the first nation in the world to fight against the wave of Western imperialism that started after the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Serbs and Yugoslavia were the first targets of Westerners in their revisited Drang nach Osten. Thus, Yugoslavia was attacked by the West through internal separatist movements in Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Macedonia as well as through Western domination within the United Nations.

The Civil War in Yugoslavia (1991–1995) was followed from 1992 to 1995 by UN sanctions against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro), the Republic of Srpska (Serbian state in Bosnia-Herzegovina), Serbs from Krajina (parts of today’s Croatia) and an NATO air bombing campaign against the Republic of Srpska and Serbs of Krajina (1994–1995). During that period, the Serbs were completely alone in their rightful combat for the preservation of Serbian and Yugoslav statehood.

The Serbian struggle against Western imperialists in the 1990s gave the Russian Federation time to consolidate and reshape its views on Western expansionism. It might be that those ten years of Serbian resistance were very precious for Russia.

Almost the entire Serbian population, throughout the former Yugoslavia, has taken a pro-Russian position. In the internal political struggle of Serbia and the Republic of Srpska, there is no Russophobic sentiment at all, even within the ranks of pro-Western parties, writes Aleksandar Raković.

https://valdaiclub.com/a/highlights/serbia-and-russia-in-the-context-of-current-west/

#Norms_and_Values #Serbia #Russia

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🇷🇸 Serbia — Moscow’s traditional ally in Eastern Europe — has demonstrated its commitment to its Russian “brothers” not only in words, but also in deeds.

If in words President Aleksandar Vučić makes it clear to all partners that the pressure of Western colleagues regarding Serbia’s accession to anti-Russian sanctions is about to achieve its success, then in reality the president of Serbia is very successful in resisting powerful Western pressure. Sometimes it has even done so at the expense of the West, making 500 million euros in spending secret in 2022, after having promised to harmonise processes with the EU, writes Kirill Yakovlev.

https://valdaiclub.com/a/highlights/political-dribbling-of-aleksandar-vucic/

#Norms_and_Values #Serbia

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