Serbia greeted Vladimir Putin as heroes on Thursday when the Russian President’s plane arrived in Belgrade, accompanied by a guard of honor of MiG-29 fighter jets he recently donated to the country.
“I am very happy to be able to visit friendly, fraternal Serbia,” Putin told Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić at the airport. Ceremonial cannons fired and church bells rang to announce Putin’s arrival, and billboards in the city carried Serbian and Russian flags.
For Putin, who presented Vučić with a high state award during the visit, this was an opportunity to strengthen one of Russia’s few strong bilateral ties in Europe and strengthen Moscow’s claim to maintain influence in the Balkans.
“Although Serbia is not a very big country geographically, you can count on us,” Vučić told Putin before the couple held talks.
In a ceremony, Putin presented Vučić with the Order of Alexander Nevsky, which in the past was bestowed on the autocratic leaders of pro-Kremlin post-Soviet countries. The bonhomie continued when Vučić gave Putin a Sarplaninac puppy.
Aleksandar Vučic presented a puppy to Vladimir Putin in Belgrade on Thursday. Photo: Mikhail Klimentyev / AP
Putin is popular in Serbia, where the Russian opposition to the NATO bombing of the country in 1999 and the subsequent independence of Kosovo is still fondly remembered.
Vučić, a former nationalist arsonist who now makes his mark as a Westerner, has played a delicate balancing act in recent years, courting Europe while trying to maintain good relations with Moscow.
In interviews with the Serbian media on the eve of his visit, Putin hit the West for trying to push Russian influence out of the Balkans. “The policies of the United States and some other Western nations, aimed at asserting their dominant role, remain a serious destabilizing factor here,” he said.
Western nations have expressed discomfort about what they believe is Russia’s interference in the region, including an apparent coup attempt in Montenegro, attempts at destabilization in Bosnia, and a humanitarian center in southern Serbia that some Western intelligence agencies believe was a front for espionage .
Putin claimed that the EU was forcing Serbia to make an “artificial choice” between Moscow and the West. He complained about NATO’s expansion into the Balkans, with Montenegro joining the military alliance in 2017 after a razor-sharp referendum and Macedonia now getting closer to accession after recently ratifying an agreement to change its name to North Macedonia and end a long-term term Dispute with Greece.
Vučić said in an interview with the Guardian in Belgrade last year that Serbia’s priority is further integration into the EU, but that he wants to maintain warm relations with Putin.
“We are militarily neutral, we have no aspirations to join NATO or the Russian alliance,” he said. “We have a good relationship with Russia and we have no problems with Russia, but we are on our EU path.”
The big issue that Vučić and Putin had to discuss on Thursday was an EU-brokered agreement between Serbia and Kosovo, which may have included an area swap, and which Vučić attempted to sign with his Kosovar counterpart Hashim Thaçi. Both heads of state and government are keen to sign a treaty over the redesign of borders despite widespread opposition from their people and the unease of much of the international community.
The deal is likely to result in Serbia recognizing Kosovo’s independence without officially recognizing it and paving the way for Kosovo to join the UN and for both countries to join the EU. However, Russian support is crucial in light of the veto in the UN Security Council, and Putin may not support an agreement that will move Serbia forward on the path to EU integration.
Putin’s visit comes amid a series of large-scale protests against Vučić in Belgrade. There were proposals that the Serbian government organize pro-Putin rallies in Belgrade on Thursday to show that it could mobilize supporters too. The Jużne Vesti newspaper claimed that government officials in the southern city of Niš were being brought to the capital to take part in rallies.
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