Serbian-Russian Tales of Military Co-operation

Military co-operation between Serbia and Russia is one of the most addressed topics in Belgrade and the region. What really lies behind such tales, and do they endanger the region?

Another Serb-Russian exercise of these days was very welcome to the media regime in Serbia, in particular for the pictures, which wrote about the reputation of Russian missile systems S-400. Here are just a few of the headlines: “Serbian officers have been trained for the use of S-400”, “Russian slaps to the West: Panic in NATO due to S-400 in Serbia!”, “The US military exercise -- Slovenensko Bratstvo (The Slovenian Brotherhood) has alarmed the West”...

In Serbian opinion, therefore, it has been established for the time and time and time and again to convince us of the dominance of military co-operation with Russia. But facts speak differently: NATO countries help much more Serbia militarily than Russia. Serbia's military more often participates in NATO exercise and partner projects. Serbia has much more projects signed with NATO than with Russia. So the question is: What is the purpose of this Serbian security policy?

Facts About Donations

Research by the Institute for European Affairs has testified that in 2018, Serbia has received mostly US donations (about 2,375,000 euros), while of all others a little over two million. Russia over the past year was among Serbia's five smallest donors. The Serbian Army has taken part in the 2012 period of 2018 in 11 joint military exercises with NATO, as well as 98 military exercises with Alliance member states. And yet, most respondents in Serbia oppose Serbia's NATO membership.

Nikola Luniq, director of the Strategic Policy Council, says the Federation of Russia's only donation to Serbia has been ten armoured vehicles, worth about $150,000. While the US has given Serbia 40 „heimer”, worth $7.5m.

When you ask ordinary people in Serbia, everyone has read and heard about the Russian donation, while for “hammer” Americans are completely uninformed. From the Federation of Russia we take outdated things, which they take out of use, and instead of melting and producing other things, they give them third places as donations. We need population education for security issues, in particular for education of young people”, claims Luniq.

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Serbia's retired aviation general, Sreto Malinovic, explains to Deutsche Welle that Serbian political leaders are making a policy “skizofrene”. „Jepet signs for going left, while driving to the right... these are just political action, I hope. Because Serbia's negotiations and membership in the European Union is the only rational way for security. They are making supposedly pro-Western politics, while in opinion they are generating a Russianfile conviction. One is spoken, the second is worked, the third is thought to be”, Malinovic claims.

It raises the question, as well, who has paid for bringing the S-400 system to Serbia for extensiveness? While this system has only served as a model, it has not been used. „These are the things that cost and the state pays, while our children try to heal us with sending SMS”, Malinovic warns.

Nicole Lounic observed the same thing. He claims Serbia has no military range, where such antiaircraft defence systems can be used. Serbia to test missile systems sends its military forces to Bulgaria. “E they have brought the S-400 system here to Serbia! This is simply a political promotion and introduction to the pre-election campaign. They want to prove themselves to fiery nationalists and to pour oil into theories, that Serbs are a heavenly people, while Serbia's elected”, Luniq claims.

Vlade Radulovic, military-political analyst for Deutsche Welle, says that despite the fact that he recently notes a deadlock in co-operation with NATO, Serbia with this alliance has much more intense co-operation than with the Russian Federation.

“But through propaganda in the media comes the conviction that we mostly cooperate with Russia. The crucial moment for the establishment of this kind of conviction was the confession of Russian MiG 29 aircraft donation, which we will pay later, according to official data, $185 million. While we still do not know how much their modernisation will cost”, claims Radulovic. He adds that Serbia on the other hand has received donations from NATO worth tens of millions of dollars.

Popular Politics

The biased fraud of opinion by politicians and the creation of a false conviction aim at political benefits to potential voters. Nikola Luniqu warns that this greatly harms not only Serbia, but also the entire region. And Nikita Bondarev himself (from the Institute for Strategic Studies) clearly says: Russia sees political leaders in our region only from the perspective of Russian interests. But Serbs are not used to making a distinction between emotions and interests. The Volin (Serbian Defence Minister Aleksandar Vulin) is presented as the person who determines national values and purposes! He has said that co-operation with NATO is an interest, while co-operation with Russia is an emotional definition. These are major obstacles to normalising reports in the region and for agreements with Kosovo”, Loniq warns.

Such a security game can also be very dangerous. When we take into account our very small, even minimal position, position, in the global tsunamis, then with our noisy drums we can cause a situation that will bring us back 50 years. And we say we are a factor of stability in the region. What a factor of stability are we, when we export non-stability rhetoric, confrontations, a rhetoric that makes us at odds with neighbours”, Sreto Malinovic points out.

Although Serbia claims to be militarily neutral, Vlade Radulovic recalls that military neutrality is not predicted in Serbia's Constitution, but only with a 2007 parliamentary statement. On the other hand, Serbia continues military co-operation with Russia, China, Belarus, the US and NATO.

And the question of buying weapons from the Federation of Russia is also problemmatic. We are told that the introduction to serious military transactions with Russia could result in US sanctions”, Radulovic warns, adding that Serbia has refused to impose sanctions against Russia, though this has been EU policy. While it has not supported EU policy on several other issues as well. “in this way we show that our foreign policy is very controversial, because without following a certain policy, you cannot accomplish the advertising goals. We are often not harmonising politics with EU security and defence issues”, claims Radulovic.

Nikola Lunjic adds that Serbia's President Aleksandar Vuciq well understands security policy in the region. He himself has said that Serbia's NATO membership would solve 90% of our problems. It's true he understands that. I hope very much he will understand the interests of Serbia and the region as well. We need to co-operate with the countries of the region, and Kosovo should view it as partner. This is in the region's common interest”, claims Luniq. He hopes Serbia's course on security issues will change after the upcoming parliamentary elections.

The Dangers of Truth

All Deutsche Welle's conversationaries agree with the findings that media propaganda in Serbia serves only to conceal the goal of power to ignore the real needs for the safety of ordinary people.

„In all polls it is said that citizens as the main threat to their security see corruption, politicians and bad power. Nobody respects this, but it's about virtual weapons and the arms race across the region”, Niola Loniq claims.

With this type of circus, the impression is that NATO has pointed to the head and is thinking about what is happening in Serbia. But I think it's very important that the people of Serbia put their finger in their head and think better about which direction to go”, Sreto Malinovic claims. /dw/