Pro-Russian Sentiments – The Distorted Mirror of Serbian Foreign Policy

Even though nine months have passed since the beginning of the Russian aggression against Ukraine, Serbia has not aligned its foreign policy with the European Union’s, thus unequivocally – in terms of both politics and values – declaring its attitude towards the biggest conflict on European soil since the Second World War. It became clear that Serbia’s proclaimed military neutrality was actually a cover for the Serbian government’s determination to preserve its alliance with Moscow at all costs. Serbia justifies such a policy, among other things, by the pro-Russian sentiment of its citizens, which has not changed despite the fact that Russia attacked a sovereign country, was placed in almost complete isolation when it comes to international relations and has a reduced capacity to ensure Serbia’s energy security or support it in connection with the issue of Kosovo.

According to the public opinion survey, the Belgrade Centre for Security Policy (BCSP) conducted this fall, only 12% of the citizens believe that Russia is to blame for the outbreak of the war in Ukraine. Fewer than half think that Serbia should be neutral in this war, while more than a third think it should be on Russia’s side. We compared the opinions of the citizens of Serbia with those of 21 other countries and realised the extent of the Serbian population’s pro-Russian sentiment. Based on these results, and in order to better understand the causes and consequences of the foreign policy decisions of the Serbian government, we analysed who and how is creating such public opinion.

The public opinion in Serbia, Russian soft power, motives, and main promoters of cooperation with Moscow, the consequences of the government’s foreign policy decisions for the citizens of Serbia, and the Kremlin’s attitude towards Serbia in the future will be discussed by:

• Johanna Deimel, Independent Analyst for Southeast Europe / Western Balkans
• Maja Bjeloš, Senior Researcher at BCSP
• Maxim Samorukov, Visiting Researcher at BCSP and Fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
• Vuk Vuksanović, Senior Researcher at BCSP

Moderator: Adam Santovac, Journalist at N1

If you would like to take part in this event offline or online, please register here.

The project is supported by the National Endowment for Democracy. The Belgrade Centre for Security Policy is solely responsible for the content of the publication and discussion.