Politico: Serbia’s Vučić faces tough choice

Serbia’s Aleksandar Vučić is grappling with a “difficult decision". Should he embrace Europe, or should he continue to try and hedge bets by pursuing Serbia’s bid for EU membership, while also maintaining fraternal ties with its traditional Slavic ally, Russia? according to Politico.

Vučić’s enemies fume at his fence-sitting and refusal to join Western sanctions against Russia. “So far, even [the] brutal war in Ukraine has not caused Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić to alter course,” argued Dimitar Bechev, a visiting fellow at Carnegie Europe.

He noted that Belgrade is crowded with affluent and middle-class Russians taking advantage of daily flights, the visa-free regime and undemanding residency rules.

But in an exclusive interview with Politico, on the margins of the recent Munich Security Conference, Vučić indicated he appreciates that the time for a rethink is dawning, and he hinted at possibly climbing off the fence.

Meanwhile, Russia’s been applying hybrid pressure on Vučić too. Two days before Munich, hundreds of Serbian nationalists and pro-Russian activists with ties to the paramilitary Wagner Group gathered in Belgrade, demanding an end to the normalisation process with Kosovo. Carrying banners emblazoned with slogans like “Kosovo is the heart of Serbia” and “Betrayal of Kosovo is a betrayal of Russia!” the protesters made death threats against Vučić.

Far-right leader Damjan Knezevic —the riotous rally’s organizer who has publicly backed the Wagner Group, which has been recruiting in Serbia — was subsequently arrested and charged with inciting violence. And Vučić himself accused the protesters of being anti-Serbian and paid by foreigners — presumably Russia.

These protests were still obviously rankling him when we sat down — so, too, was Wagner’s recruitment of Serbs. “I don’t need Wagner’s support; I don’t need them applauding or criticising me,” he said, flashing irritation for the only time in our conversation. Serbs who’ve been recruited to fight in Ukraine “are going to be arrested when they come back to Serbia and [are] within reach of our institutions. You don’t recruit like that in a friendly country,” he added.