On May 13, 2023, a number of pro-government tabloids (republika.rs; alo.rs; informer.rs) published articles devoted to the comment of Ukrainian journalist Iryna Seydhanova on Twitter, where she expressed her own vision for a possible solution to the current internal political crisis in Serbia, stressing that mass riots “like in Kyiv in 2014” ) can lead to a large number of victims.
Some Serbian media noted that the Ukrainian woman is thereby calling for a violent confrontation on the streets of Belgrade in order to change the current government in Serbia.
It is known that the aforementioned journalist was in Belgrade after the start of the full-scale war. Currently, he has been living in Slovenia for several months.
At the same time, responding to widespread information, the President of Serbia A. Vučić on May 14 during a working trip to the city of Smederevo, he said that there will be no new Maidan in Belgrade, alluding to the change of power in Ukraine in 2014 and the brutal clashes that accompanied it. He once again took the opportunity to accuse the pro-European opposition of wanting to seize power without elections through violence, calling them “vultures and hyenas”.
The head of state also noted that on May 26 this year there will be “interesting decisions” at the congresses of the ruling SPP. This day was also determined by A. Vučić for mass actions of supporters of the President of Serbia.
Thus, the Serbian authorities continue to be in a state of political turbulence, trying to consolidate the society around them in order to maintain their positions of power. It uses the well-known Russian narrative, which blames the war in Ukraine on the events in Kyiv since 2014, and also diverts the attention of local citizens from the responsibility of the authorities themselves for the tragic events that occurred in early May (2 mass shootings).
It is likely that the entire campaign in the pro-government media, starting with the distribution and possibly the creation of the “Ukrainian woman’s tweet” and the reaction of the Serbian leader to it, was planned by the office of the President of the RS and was designed to: – warn against mass protests by citizens of Serbia, threatening possible mass repressions, violence and victims; – to continue forming in public opinion that the events of the Revolution of Dignity are responsible for the current war between Russia and Ukraine.
At the same time, A. Vučić and his supporters avoid the question that the “homeland” of the mass protests that led to the change of power (in Russia it is customary to call them color revolutions) began in Belgrade (2000). Serbia can hardly expect bloody aggression like Russia’s against Ukraine from neighboring countries that are NATO members or candidates for EU membership.
We suggest you familiarize yourself with the articles of the above-mentioned Serbian tabloids: https://www.republika.rs/vesti/politika/434732/ukrajinka-poziva-na-majdan-u-beogradu; https://informer.rs/vesti/politika/793551/ukrajinka-opozicija-protesti: https://www.alo.rs/vesti/politika/759253/ukrajinka-poziva-na-majdan-u-beogradu/vest.
