Double Deception? Vučić’s Promises to the West and Russia Collide Amid Serbia’s Crisis

European Commissioner for Enlargement Marta Kos visited Serbia this week. The visit was intended to demonstrate Belgrade’s commitment to Brussels. Earlier, Serbian Orthodox Church Patriarch Porfirije (Prvoslav Perić) asked Vladimir Putin for Serbia to remain in Russia’s political orbit.

Photo: Marta Kos and Aleksandar Vučić

The student protests in Serbia, now in their sixth month, are not just a problem for President Aleksandar Vučić. These protests have shaken Western policy toward Serbia and the Balkans as a whole. The "European path" of several Balkan states has been stripped bare and rendered nonsensical. The students’ simple demands—which do not ask Belgrade to align with Brussels or Moscow—cannot be fulfilled, as they undermine the entire great-power politics toward this part of the world.

The collapse of the canopy at Novi Sad’s railway station shattered the narrative that Vučić, or any Balkan leader, guarantees Balkan stability during the EU accession process. Kos’s visit to Serbia and Porfirije’s stance in Moscow reveal how Brussels and Moscow view Balkan citizens and how some Balkan leaders treat the people they rule.

Distant Russian and Brussels Worlds

In mid-February, former Serbian President Boris Tadić, attending the Munich Security Conference, wrote on social media X that his interlocutors in the German city told him "representatives of the Serbian delegation are feeding Western politicians information that Russian intelligence and interests are behind the student protests in Serbia." He added that it is "absurd to simultaneously claim that a color revolution is underway and that Russia is behind it, especially considering the Progressive-led government signed an agreement granting Serbia observer status in the Russian CSTO defense alliance and formed a joint working group with Russia to combat color revolutions."

Two months later, a complete reversal. Porfirije, whom many in Serbia see as Vučić’s man, told the Russian president that a "color revolution" is unfolding in Serbia and expressed hope that "this trial will be overcome." He requested Serbia become part of the "Russian world" and thanked Putin for supporting Serbia. He conveyed Vučić’s greetings, adding that the Serbian president will visit Moscow on May 9 to commemorate the victory over Nazism in World War II.

This statement by the head of the Serbian Orthodox Church (SPC) angered some in Serbia. Most criticism focuses on his accusation that protesting students and citizens are paid agents of Western intelligence.

This alignment with Vučić’s camp and repetition of claims by members of the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) has upset the opposition. Among those accusing the clergy of propagating regime-friendly narratives is MP Radomir Lazović of the Green-Left Front. On Facebook, commenting on the patriarch’s remarks, he wrote that during a Foreign Affairs Committee meeting, he questioned Serbia’s new ambassador to the U.S., Dragan Šutanovac—a former Democratic Party (DS) leader whom Vučić blames for all of Serbia’s ills—about the protests.

"To my question about how he will present the students’ fight for justice to U.S. interlocutors, the former DS president and now Progressive ambassador replied with memorized lines from the SNS protocol for slandering student protests. He immediately launched into claims about Russian security service influence and, like a parrot, repeated the prepared talking point that EU flags are absent from the protests—a line all Progressives repeat," Lazović wrote.

The Serbian public missed a key part of Porfirije’s Moscow remarks. Thanking Putin for supporting Belgrade’s policies toward Montenegro, Kosovo, and the smaller Bosnian entity, he said, "Without Kosovo and Republika Srpska, I can say, the Serbian people have no future." Serbian nationalists, typically close to the Church, took no issue with the claim that Serbs lack prospects without part of Bosnia and Herzegovina—a region never part of Serbia.

Porfirije did not stop there. Serbs "sometimes" place more hope in Russia than Serbia, "centers of power in the West want to shatter the Serbian people’s identity and culture," and "the Serbian people see the Russian people as one." He echoed Russian Patriarch Kirill’s words that "love for Russia... may even be embedded in the genes of the Serbian people" and called Western moral decline "demonic."

All this followed Putin’s opening remarks endorsing the so-called "Serbian world"—an attack on the sovereignty of multiple states. "We know the Balkan situation is not simple, and we acknowledge your efforts to strengthen Serbia’s position, including the significant All-Serbian Assembly you held," Putin said.

Brussels’ Perspective

The Moscow meeting set the stage for Commissioner Kos’s visit. Upon her arrival, official Belgrade shifted tone, expressing a desire to move closer to the West—distancing itself from the "Russian world" and a Kremlin isolated in Europe after its aggression against Ukraine, a majority-Orthodox country unmentioned by Moscow’s "faith brothers."

On the day Kos arrived, Foreign Minister Marko Đurić stated Belgrade aims to meet EU membership conditions "by 2026." After meeting Kos, Vučić wrote on Instagram: "I emphasized our full readiness to accelerate reforms—not due to bureaucratic demands, but because we believe they bring a better life for our citizens." Parliamentary Speaker Ana Brnabić said, "Serbia’s EU membership remains its foreign policy goal." Kos also met Prime Minister Đuro Mačuta.

Kos spent two days in Serbia, meeting various political actors and laying flowers in Novi Sad for the canopy collapse victims. She met with "Students Who Want to Study," though the meeting was held at the EU Delegation in Belgrade—not at the protest camp outside Serbia’s Parliament and Presidency, as initially announced.

Kos also spoke with DS leader Srđan Milivojević. After their meeting, he said EU officials were "stunned" by what they saw outside Parliament. Serbian media have reported for months that the camp has few students and includes alleged criminals and veterans of Serbian military units that fought in Croatia and Bosnia.

Ahmedin Škrijelj, an MP from the Sandžak Democratic Action Party, attended the meeting with Milivojević. He told Kos that Bosniaks in Serbia are denied constitutionally guaranteed rights and called for mechanisms to protect them, calling the current government a remnant of Slobodan Milošević’s regime. He urged demilitarizing Sandžak, converting military facilities into educational or recreational spaces—particularly a planned military site in Priboj near the Bosnian border—while supporting Serbia’s EU and NATO membership.

Serbia’s European or Russian Path?

After meeting Vučić, Kos said the EU’s "momentum" for enlargement is real and Serbia must seize this "once-in-a-generation chance." She wrote on X: "Timely meeting with Serbia’s president. The EU’s enlargement momentum is real, and we want Serbia to seize this chance to complete our Union." To achieve this, "concrete steps on democratic principles and reforms" are needed, and "the time to act is now."

What reforms does Brussels demand? Kos stated Serbia must hold free, democratic elections, improve media freedom, and align with student demands. Otherwise, she warned during a visit to the Zoran Đinđić Foundation, Serbia’s European path will stall.

Hosts at the Foundation alerted Kos to "media campaigns in pro-government tabloids that led to six citizens being detained for 50 days, while six others fled to EU countries—the only zone they currently perceive as safe—due to threats." On Kos’s second day, opposition figure Marinika Tepić was assaulted in public.

While some in Serbia found Kos’s messages encouraging, they are insufficient to spur meaningful change. It is clear Vučić will not allow free elections, his allied media will not stop shamelessly attacking critics, and Belgrade will not abandon its "Serbian world" policies toward neighbors—backed by Putin and championed by Porfirije. Why would they? The penalty, per Kos’s words, is merely the end of Serbia’s European path.

This article was previously published on nap.ba

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