Berliner Boersenzeitung - Serbian leader Vucic defies EU with Russia visit

EUR -
AED 4.161003
AFN 79.225552
ALL 97.92724
AMD 435.429256
ANG 2.027471
AOA 1039.408682
ARS 1310.295458
AUD 1.758567
AWG 2.040579
AZN 1.926761
BAM 1.952979
BBD 2.287096
BDT 138.3102
BGN 1.955065
BHD 0.427101
BIF 3371.499834
BMD 1.132868
BND 1.459192
BOB 7.827623
BRL 6.404333
BSD 1.132749
BTN 96.694463
BWP 15.204901
BYN 3.707045
BYR 22204.222201
BZD 2.275293
CAD 1.561778
CDF 3245.668457
CHF 0.937222
CLF 0.027723
CLP 1063.854103
CNY 8.161525
CNH 8.147222
COP 4658.355188
CRC 576.259916
CUC 1.132868
CUP 30.021015
CVE 110.104002
CZK 24.897021
DJF 201.333583
DKK 7.456053
DOP 66.753569
DZD 149.618085
EGP 56.422746
ERN 16.993027
ETB 153.991787
FJD 2.550998
FKP 0.835317
GBP 0.838748
GEL 3.104359
GGP 0.835317
GHS 11.72396
GIP 0.835317
GMD 81.566652
GNF 9812.824579
GTQ 8.691445
GYD 237.345041
HKD 8.879893
HNL 29.504379
HRK 7.530971
HTG 148.006193
HUF 403.66315
IDR 18444.741508
ILS 4.003909
IMP 0.835317
INR 96.675144
IQD 1483.856449
IRR 47722.084336
ISK 144.003297
JEP 0.835317
JMD 180.179716
JOD 0.803215
JPY 163.484921
KES 146.389602
KGS 99.069167
KHR 4534.409652
KMF 492.228422
KPW 1019.58669
KRW 1558.203598
KWD 0.347349
KYD 0.943928
KZT 579.84469
LAK 24477.42431
LBP 101493.588384
LKR 339.609407
LRD 226.550729
LSL 20.274112
LTL 3.345066
LVL 0.685261
LYD 6.172084
MAD 10.456395
MDL 19.522626
MGA 5172.482272
MKD 61.441243
MMK 2378.524546
MNT 4052.511905
MOP 9.145708
MRU 44.810268
MUR 51.386603
MVR 17.514199
MWK 1964.145295
MXN 21.825629
MYR 4.802211
MZN 72.401658
NAD 20.274112
NGN 1794.837129
NIO 41.689776
NOK 11.512221
NPR 154.71046
NZD 1.905197
OMR 0.436151
PAB 1.132754
PEN 4.142516
PGK 4.648285
PHP 62.926293
PKR 320.568613
PLN 4.244633
PYG 9050.925205
QAR 4.140282
RON 5.056108
RSD 117.049363
RUB 90.916349
RWF 1607.563554
SAR 4.2492
SBD 9.460321
SCR 16.10645
SDG 680.289145
SEK 10.898688
SGD 1.460149
SHP 0.890257
SLE 25.739017
SLL 23755.685826
SOS 647.35627
SRD 41.726968
STD 23448.090276
SVC 9.911682
SYP 14729.391919
SZL 20.267543
THB 37.160331
TJS 11.418005
TMT 3.970704
TND 3.382114
TOP 2.653291
TRY 44.218405
TTD 7.705766
TWD 34.007019
TZS 3055.3466
UAH 47.229157
UGX 4133.029504
USD 1.132868
UYU 47.1419
UZS 14657.825583
VES 107.448639
VND 29361.118821
VUV 137.421342
WST 3.124315
XAF 655.00501
XAG 0.034105
XAU 0.000343
XCD 3.061634
XDR 0.810689
XOF 655.00501
XPF 119.331742
YER 276.25008
ZAR 20.32246
ZMK 10197.182998
ZMW 30.612508
ZWL 364.783188
  • RBGPF

    2.0500

    65.05

    +3.15%

  • RYCEF

    0.3700

    11.57

    +3.2%

  • CMSC

    0.1900

    22.13

    +0.86%

  • SCS

    0.4100

    10.5

    +3.9%

  • GSK

    0.7800

    39.44

    +1.98%

  • NGG

    -0.0900

    74.7

    -0.12%

  • RELX

    0.2200

    55.66

    +0.4%

  • BCC

    2.9800

    89.54

    +3.33%

  • BTI

    0.0400

    45.26

    +0.09%

  • RIO

    -0.7800

    60.8

    -1.28%

  • AZN

    0.5500

    70.96

    +0.78%

  • VOD

    0.0300

    10.5

    +0.29%

  • CMSD

    0.2400

    22.13

    +1.08%

  • JRI

    0.1300

    12.82

    +1.01%

  • BP

    0.0600

    29.15

    +0.21%

  • BCE

    -0.0500

    21.48

    -0.23%

Serbian leader Vucic defies EU with Russia visit
Serbian leader Vucic defies EU with Russia visit / Photo: Attila KISBENEDEK - AFP/File

Serbian leader Vucic defies EU with Russia visit

Serbia's President Aleksandar Vucic arrived in Moscow Wednesday for the week's celebrations marking 80 years since the victory over Nazi Germany, risking anger in Brussels as he tries to balance Russian ties and European aspirations.

Text size:

Russian state TV showed footage of Vucic in the capital, where the Kremlin said he will also have a meeting with President Vladimir Putin after Friday's parade.

"After many years, back in Moscow," Vucic wrote on Instagram, sharing a photo of him at Moscow airport.

The European Union has repeatedly warned it would not look favourably upon such actions by member states or candidate countries, which Serbia has been since 2012.

"Relations with Russia cannot be business as usual," European Commission spokesman Markus Lammert said last week, referring to Moscow's invasion of Ukraine.

But he declined to speculate on any consequences.

That has left room for manoeuvre for Vucic, whom Putin honoured with a top award in 2019 for promoting ties between the countries.

In a sign of the tightrope he is walking, Vucic, who has been in power since 2012, received the Russian ambassador Wednesday before his departure for Moscow, swiftly followed by the British ambassador, just days after a visit to the United States.

The Balkan country has long held close ties with Russia and a shared aversion to NATO since the 1999 Kosovo war bombings.

- Delicate balance -

Since Russian troops invaded Ukraine in February 2022, Belgrade has maintained relations with Moscow and imposed no sanctions, yet supported UN resolutions against it.

Maintaining good relations with Putin without alienating EU favour is "one of the pillars" of Vucic's foreign policy, even if "he has been more careful in recent years", said Florian Bieber, of the University of Graz.

It is also about "calibrating the intensity of Serbia's relationship with Europe", said Eric Gordy, a Balkans specialist at University College London, who compared Vucic's approach to that of former Yugoslav president Josip Broz Tito.

From the Russian side, having "the biggest country and the largest economy in the middle of the Balkans is a very significant lever -- not to directly influence but simply to be present, to provoke... instrumentalise (or even) undermine EU projects," said Nemanja Todorovic Stiplija, from the Belgrade-based Centre for Contemporary Politics think tank.

- Misunderstanding -

Ties include contracts for Russian Mi-17 helicopters and a Pantsir air defence system sold to Serbia.

During the Covid pandemic, Russia provided medical equipment and Sputnik vaccines, while Moscow has supported Serbia at the UN, particularly over Belgrade's claim to its former province of Kosovo, which declared independence in 2008.

The Orthodox Church and the presence in Serbia of Russian media outlets such as Sputnik, TASS and RT Balkan provide useful communication channels for Putin, whose likeness adorns mugs, magnets, t-shirts and socks sold at kiosks in the heart of Belgrade.

Russia also retains a stranglehold through control of gas supplies, with its energy giant Gazprom owning critical energy infrastructure in Serbia.

Vucic faces pressure there too, as Belgrade negotiates a new multi-year gas deal with Russia when the current agreement expires at the end of May.

Russian investment, though, is dwarfed by China, which has pumped billions into Serbia and its Balkan neighbours in recent years, as it tries to expand its economic footprint in central Europe.

Another key player is the EU with whom Serbia conducts most of its trade.

Stiplija said the Kremlin's grip "is not that extensive but the Serbian government is trying to somehow use this misunderstanding... that there is a very big Russian political influence".

For Bieber, there is a "shared influence", pointing out that "most anti-Western media in Serbia are Serbian outlets".

Gordy said that Vucic's Moscow trip is "a populist gesture towards Serbia's right-wing fringe" as he battles widespread protests stemming from a deadly railway station roof collapse in Novi Sad last year that has become a symbol of deep-rooted corruption.

Vucic has accused demonstrators of being backed by foreign powers, in another echo of Putin.

(A.Lehmann--BBZ)