Inside the country backing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine - BBC Newsnight visits Serbia

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Published 2023-02-17
As the first anniversary of Russia's invasion of Ukraine approaches, the majority of people in almost every European country are opposed to the war... with one notable exception. Serbia has long been an ally of Russia, with close political and economic links.

It is thought that more than 70% of Serbs support Moscow over Kyiv. In the capital, Belgrade, pro-Russian graffiti can be seen on walls, while souvenir shops sell President Putin merchandise and even pro-war symbols.

So, where does it come from? Is it historical links between two Slavic and Orthodox nations, is it realpolitik or is something more insidious at play?

Working with BBC Radio 4’s The World Tonight, Newsnight's international correspondent Joe Inwood travelled to Serbia to investigate. With thanks to the World Service Investigations Unit.

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All Comments (21)
  • @GameandComedy
    breaking news: a country attacked by NATO is against NATO!
  • Not sure why most are making it sound like Serbia and Russia alliance is a new thing. They have been very well known supporters of each other for a very long time.
  • Funny how the US ambassador's main line of defense sounded like "our imperialism is better than theirs".
  • I deeply apologize because US and UK propaganda is not strong in Serbia, hope you don’t mind
  • I’m a black American from Chicago, I had a lot of Serbian homies from berwyn , I’ve know about a lot of this stuff for a while. I overall side with Serbs and Russians as I relate to their struggles. May God bless their countries and heal their pains.
  • @Bokicazver
    INTERESTING OPINION: Just as a reminder, in 1998 Serbia reacted exactly as Ukraine reacted in 2014 even softer! Not to mention that US and NATO were back then illegally providing weapons and logistics to terrorist groups on the ground (until 1997 UCK was described as a terrorist organization by the CIA itself) who were attacking Serbian police and civilians, kidnaping local people and selling their organs while UN and NATO were turning blind eyes on this. In 1998 Clinton magically changed their status from a terror group into "freedom fighters" and supported them on every possible way together with his NATO allies making a training camps right across Serbian Albanian border. When they fail to make anything on the ground since Serbian troops until the spring of 1999 recaptured almost all towns and villages in Kosovo, the US started bombing Serbia making direct war crimes and brake of international law for which until today no one was responsible. What US and UK were complaining about today is that they did precisely the same things to others but back then there was no mass media hysteria and I don't remember anyone placing sanctions on the US for war crimes and invading other countries in the past like Iraq. P.S. BBC deliberately picks some extreme examples like this guy and tries to reflect those to the whole society, go to Belgrade by yourself and ask regular people on the streets what they think.
  • @dirkofficial1303
    Serbia,a beautiful country, with beautiful people,I travelled around there last summer
  • @rogyn8484
    Just as an reminder, during 1998 Serbia reacted exactly as Ukraine reacted in 2014 even softer! Not to mention that US and NATO were back then ilegally providing weapons and logistics to terrorist groups on the ground (until 1997 UCK was described as terrorist organization by CIA itself) who were attacking Serbian police and civilians, kidnaping local people and selling their organs while UN and NATO were turning blind eyes on this. In 1998 Clinton magically changed their status from a terror group into "freedom fighters" and supported them on every possible way together with his NATO allies making a training camps right across Serbian Albanian border. When they fail to make anything on the ground since Serbian troops until spring of 1999 recaptured almost all towns and villages in Kosovo, US started bombing Serbia making direct war crime and brake of international law for which until today no one was responsible. What US and UK were complaining today they did exactly the same things to others but back then there was no mass media hysteria and I don't remember anyone placing sanctions to US for war crimes and invading of other countries in the past like Iraq. P.S. BBC deliberately picking some extreme examples like this guy and try to reflect those to the whole society, go to Belgrade by yourself and ask regular people on the streets what they think.
  • From Serbia, Ukrainian and Russian people are my friends and brothers and sisters. Praying for this to end. But also, we in Serbia know who is behind this conflict, and who was behind conflicts past decades all around the world.
  • @keyfeatures
    Researcher interviewed at 17:43 is from Belgrade Centre for Security Policy. This is part of Belgrade Security Forum which is aligned with NATO. So although they are described as 'independent' they are not exactly 'neutral'.
  • @narancauk
    Americans are Distressed about Russia -UKR war . As much as Russians would be distressed about USA -Mexico war
  • I find this documentary very revealing. It impressed me how the journalist assumes the US propaganda in a natural way. And the part of the ambassador, the level of cynism is just from another planet. I'm from Spain and Kosovo is Serbia 🇷🇸 🇪🇸
  • I'm an American, who spent three weeks in Belgrade last month to visit family in the region. Honestly, I didn't have a single conversation with anyone about the war. The RT "propaganda" billboard in this video is actually an advertisement near the City Centre for RT Balkans, and the majority of souvenirs being sold are Serbian not Russian.
  • @cyberlast3594
    I still cannot remember if bbc recorded when nato bombarded Yugoslavia?😮
  • People in Serbia should be wary of those who are trying to offer them a good past. They are doing it because they are unable to offer them a good future.
  • @djuka23
    My favourite part is this argument of the american ambassador, who says that we see them as friends because the involment in sports and appreciation of their culture. I find this truly hilarious. Forget about the bombings, forget about our involment in Kosovo's independence, forget about our army base that is there to always remind Serbs who is in control, forget about every narrative that portraits u Serbians as savages, focus at the involment in sports. Borderline criminal. That can maybe work with american people but not with us our dear ambassador.
  • @bazsamester
    If only we Hungarians were this bold to show this much support to Russia. I am always jealous at Serbia when I see things like this Слава России, Сербии и Венгрии 🇭🇺❤🇷🇺🇷🇸
  • @user-sg8jx7vc9o
    Сербия и Россия братья навсегда!