EU candidate Serbia: “The influence of the Russian media is huge”

Russian state media can spread their disinformation undisturbed from Belgrade – and often make it to Serbian media. That suits the Serbian government very well.

“Ukrayina napala rusiyu!” – “Ukraine attacked Russia!” several Serbian tabloids headlined in unison a few days before the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine. In addition the sentence: “The USA plunge the world into chaos”. that it the alleged attacks by Ukrainian soldiers presumably never existed and presumably staged by Russia to justify the later invasion is not mentioned in the reports. And that is apparently no coincidence.

The reporting of many Serbian media about the Russian war of aggression is very one-sided and corresponds to the Kremlin’s narrative. At one point it is said that Russia has done everything it could to bring about peace in Ukraine. Another time, the Russian attack is presented as a response to the NATO threat. And there is also the story of the alleged denazification of Ukraine. But why is that?

“The Kremlin’s narrative is socially acceptable”

“The influence of the Russian media in Serbia is huge,” says Thomas Brey, long-time head of the regional office of the dpa news agency in south-eastern Europe. “The narrative that the Kremlin is spreading is absolutely socially acceptable in Serbia and across the board.” The Russian state medium Sputnik has had its own branch called Sputnik Srbija in the Serbian capital Belgrade for years, and since November the medium RT, which is blocked in the EU, has also been broadcasting in Serbian – under the name RT Balkan.

RT Balkan aims to offer a pro-Russian, “alternative” perspective on regional and global affairs, the website says. By 2024, RT Balkan also wants to set up its own television channel. In Serbia, RT had already received a license for cable and satellite transmission of the channel in German in European countries in 2021.

In terms of content, the articles in the Russian state media revolve primarily around Serbia, Russia and the USA, like one Study by Brey for the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom indicates. Brey says that it is primarily about discrediting the West and binding Serbia to Russia. This can also be seen, for example, in the reporting on the corona vaccines. While the western vaccines were mostly presented negatively, there are numerous success stories about the Russian vaccine Sputnik V.

“Vučić is a master of propaganda”

But actually there is no need for the Russian media in Serbia to spread the Russian narrative, says Aleksandra Tomanic, Managing Director of the European Fund for the Balkans. “Some Serbian media close to the state go much further in their reporting than the Russian.” An important reason why this is so is Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić. He turned the country into an autocracy, similar to Vladimir Putin in Russia or Viktor Orbán in Hungary.

Therefore, Vučić also plays a central role in shaping the Serbian media landscape. Since Vučić has been in charge of the country’s politics, journalists there “can neither count on security nor on protection from the state”, writes the non-governmental organization Reporters Without Borders. It goes on to say: “The media market is very concentrated and the state, as the largest donor and advertiser, exerts considerable influence on reporting.”

“Vučić is a master of propaganda,” says Antoinette Nikolova, director of the Balkan Free Media Initiative. “He got the media under his control.” As the former information minister of the Serbian ruler and war criminal Slobodan Milošević, Vučić would cleverly use the pro-Russian narrative for his own interests and further heat up the mood in the country.

It is obvious that the Russian state media are welcome in Serbia. For example, when Sputnik Srbija celebrated its fifth anniversary in February 2020, Vučić was among the guests along with Foreign Minister Ivica Dačić.

“Of course there are also Serbian media that are independent in their reporting,” says Kirsten Schönefeld, head of the Friedrich Ebert Foundation (FES) office in Belgrade. “They then report very differently.” However, these are clearly in the minority, especially among the classic media such as the print media. The reporting of the state-related media, on the other hand, is less differentiated and close to the government. Tabloids and high-circulation daily newspapers in particular spread pro-Russian and also anti-Western narratives.

Majority of Serbs support Russia

However, Serbian affection for Russia is not new, says Nikolova of the Balkan Free Media Initiative. As early as the 1990s, Serbia had its sights set on Russia. “Apart from the proximity of the Slavic language and Orthodox culture, memories of the 1999 NATO intervention in Kosovo are very fresh, and Russia does not recognize Kosovo either.” Under Vučić, however, this has intensified again – not least because of the media propaganda.

The Russian media therefore finds fertile ground among the population: According to polls by the Belgrade think tank Crta 58 percent of Serbs support Russia in the war, only 22 percent support Ukraine. 64 percent blame the West in the form of the USA, NATO or the EU for the war, only 15 percent blame Russia. Also applies Russia’s head of state Putin as the most popular foreign politician.

“It’s a vicious circle,” says Southeast Europe expert Brey. “The Serbs are influenced from an early age by the narrative that the Russians are their brothers, their orthodox co-religionists who have historically always been closest to them.” This narrative is supported by the church, schools and also the media. “In addition, the Russian view of the world is absolutely the same as Vučić’s, so that Russian influence is also politically encouraged.”

Serbia is one of the few European countries not to have imposed sanctions against Russia and was the first foreign country to produce the Russian corona vaccine Sputnik V. Russia, in turn, supports Serbia in the Kosovo conflict and supplies gas on favorable terms.

“Economic connection to the EU much stronger”

But even if Russia is often perceived as the closest and most important partner in Serbia, the economic ties with the EU are significantly stronger. According to the FES with reference to journalistic sources, two thirds of all Serbian exports go to the EU, only 3.9 percent to Russia. More than one in seven Serbs works for a company involved in trade with the EU. In addition, since the start of the EU accession negotiations, Serbia has also benefited financially from the EU, received 1.5 billion euros from 2014-2020 alone.

“If you look at the whole thing from an economic point of view, Russia’s investment volume in Serbia is much lower than that of the EU,” says Schönefeld. “That means the economic connection to the EU is much stronger. And if you can then speak of other influences, China is of particular importance.”

Vučić knows that too. He is therefore consciously positioning himself publicly between Russia and the EU, says Schönefeld, in order to do justice to both positions. Because even if the EU is the closest partner from an economic point of view, Serbia’s participation in the sanctions against Russia would have serious consequences for the Balkan state, above all because of the heavy dependence on Russian oil and gas supplies. In addition, Serbia has taken out several large loans from Russia in recent years, and Russia is also an important arms supplier for Serbia.

Also Bosnia and Herzegovina in the Russian focus

But the Russian state media are also trying to get their narrative across to the population in other Balkan countries. Tomanic from the European Fund for the Balkans says this is particularly successful in countries where many Serbs live, such as in the Republic of Srpska entity in Bosnia and Herzegovina. President Milorad Dodik has been threatening secession from the state as a whole for a long time, and Serbia and Russia support this.

A few days ago, a subgroup of the nationalist motorcycle gang “Night Wolves,” which originated in Russia, also took part in a nationalist and unconstitutional parade in East Sarajevo. Putin also received the highest order for his “patriotic concern and love for the Republic of Srpska”.

Russia’s overriding goal is to keep the Balkan countries as unstable as possible, says longtime dpa correspondent Brey. “Russia wants to keep the power-political situation in the Balkans in limbo, so that any crises can be created at any time by the unrest there.” From the Russian point of view, Montenegro’s accession to NATO and the integration of some Balkan countries such as Croatia into the Euro-Atlantic structures were serious defeats for this goal.

As long as a large part of the media spreads the Russian narrative, however, it is inconceivable that the Serbian population will also move closer to the EU, says Brey. “The EU politicians are regularly paraded in public. As long as nothing is done against this media power, it is hopeless.” Brey therefore calls for clearer words from the EU towards Serbia.

Tomanic agrees. However, she emphasizes that not all Serbs should be labeled as pro-Russian and anti-Western. “There are very, very many courageous people who have been fighting against this nationalist policy for decades, who are taking action, who are putting themselves in danger. It’s not ‘the Serbs’ when we talk about the current Serbian government or politics.”