European Parliament: Russia using Serbia to intervene in Kosovo, Montenegro

This intervention, according to the report, is exercised “in Bosnia through Republika Srpska, to Montenegro, exploiting pro-Serbian sentiments as well as the Serbian Orthodox Church and in Kosovo, exploiting and fostering existing disputes in Kosovo's north”, the Voice of America reports.

Russia, it further says, still has visible influence in the Western Balkans, with the power to intervene in regional efforts for reconciliation, integration and reform towards democratisation.

In the report, supported by 27 representatives in the Commission for Foreign Interventions, while having a vote against and a abstention, it is said among other things that Russian efforts to exert influence over the Western Balkans should be seen as part of a broader strategy to promote authoritarianism in Europe.

The report says that the pro-rus message spreads through Serbian and Hungarian-owned media in the Western Balkans, while voicing concern with the latest <x0Gs that Serbia is the most vulnerable country to the foreign negative influence in the Western Balkans, especially from Russia and China, and that Serbia has not yet implemented sanctions against Russia and has not harmonised with European Union foreign policy”.

In sharp opposition to Western sanctions, Serbia, a candidate country for membership in the European Union, has become a safe haven for several Russian companies seeking to avoid sanctions imposed by the EU, reportedly in the report in which it stresses that since July 2022 the RT (former Russia Today) offices have been opened in Belgrade and started the online news service even in Serbian.

The “panel particularly strongly condemns the opening of a RT office in Belgrade and the opening of its online news service in Serbian, thus allowing this mountain actor to spread his dezinforms across the region”, while demanding that Serbian <x2-authories be harmonised with the European Council's decision to suspend Russian media's” transmission activities, and RT.

The report notes that the Western Balkans is an area of strategic and geopolitical competition, and some of its countries are prone to destabilisation, threatening the continent's security and stability. The third countries are further said to be exploiting these weaknesses, including strategic investments and disinforming campaigns, given that the democratic security and sustainability of countries aimed at EU membership are closely linked to the security, stability and democratic sustainability of the European Union itself”.

Serbia is the only European country that has not joined Western sanctions on Moscow due to its aggression in Ukraine. Although aimed at EU integration, it maintains close ties with Russia, primarily because of the Kremlin's support for Belgrade's refusal to recognise Kosovo's independence.