Russia

Russian trade’s threats: Is Armenia the new battleground between Eastern and Western influence?

After two mandates, the centrist Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan led the parliamentary elections polls as well as its preliminary results despite Russian pressure, indicating his likely pursuit as a pro-EU head of the government of Armenia. Pashinyan’s political choices to diversify its trading partners, through partnerships with UAE, Azerbaijan and China, and strengthen ideological ties […]

June 19, 2026

The government nods along when Russians accuse the EU of preparing a “Maidan” in Serbia

For months, government officials, led by Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić, have claimed that student blockades and protests following the collapse of a canopy in Novi Sad were in fact a “colour revolution attempt”. They saw the organizers and financiers in the West, just as Moscow does. That Vučić’s regime is on the same wavelength as […]

October 10, 2025

Neither peace, nor stability – Vučić

Unrest at home The protests that began in November 2024, after the collapse of the canopy in Novi Sad, were not extinguished by the repression that was visible at every step. Over the summer, a new phase of suppressing civic resistance began – both propaganda and physical violence escalated, we noted hundreds of […]

October 4, 2025

Russian campaign sinks the online space: What is “Storm-1516” that has reached Serbia?

Since 2023, the French state agency Viginum has been monitoring a set of information manipulation set called “Storm-1516” (also known by Microsoft’s nickname “Neva Flood”). Viginum’s report is based on the analysis of 77 operations conducted from August 2023 to March 5, 2025, in which Viginum uncovers the Kremlin’s attempt to undermine trust in Ukraine […]

May 7, 2025

When the regulators are raised: How does the propaganda machine “extinguish” the crisis in Serbia?

Although discussions of “colour revolutions” in Serbia surfaced in early November, significant attempts to delegitimize protests became apparent on November 22. Ana Brnabić, Parliament Speaker, then characterized roadblocks due to fatalities in Novi Sad as “well-coordinated from abroad”. A couple days later, the narrative intensified. Media outlets began comparing Serbian protests to those against Russian […]

December 8, 2024

Anti-Western front: How Serbia defends Russian voices

The evil West and the “island of freedom” Reporters Without Borders recently assessed that Russia Today uses its office in Belgrade to “adjust Kremlin narratives before spreading them throughout Southeast Europe”. In that analysis, created as part of their new initiative, Propaganda Monitor, RWB also called on the EU and its member states to […]

October 20, 2024

Russian-Chinese tailwind for settling scores with NGOs

The beginning of August reminded in many ways the end of December 2023. There are protests in the streets, warnings in the media about a new Maidan and “colour revolutions”, as well as Russia’s claims that the West is trying to “destabilise the situation” in Serbia following a “notorious scheme” (RTS). There is also gratitude […]

September 2, 2024

Speaking the Kremlin Language: Who Spoke Out After the Serbian Elections

The Russian narrative about Maidan – the events in Ukraine from 2013/2014, which Russians portray as a foreign-orchestrated coup, while Ukrainians see it as a revolution of dignity that freed Ukraine from decades-long Kremlin influence – seems to have resonated well in public discourse in Serbia. Just as protests against violence due to two massacres […]

March 9, 2024

Elections in Serbia and Russia’s pat on the back

When the German Foreign Minister, Annalena Baerbock, expressed “enormous concern about tendencies of nationalist propaganda” in Serbia ahead of the elections held on 17 December, the response came at lightning speed. “She is concerned about nationalist tendencies… She probably listened to the speeches of people from the ‘Serbia against Violence’, who suddenly became patriots. Until […]

January 7, 2024