Ever since Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, dozens of thousands of Russians have found a haven in Serbia – the only European country that has not imposed sanctions on their country. Since the Ukraine war is unlikely to end anytime soon, the Balkan nation is expected to continue hosting Russian migrants. But is that good or bad for Serbia?
It is not the first time that the southeastern European country is facing with an influx of Russian migrants. Following the collapse of the Russian Empire in 1917, around 70,000 Russians settled in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. Many of them were soldiers of the White Army, led by General Pyotr Nikolaevich Wrangel, whose tomb is in the Russian Trinity Church in Belgrade. But the 21st century Russian migrants have very little in common with Wrangel’s anti-Bolshevik forces.
Most Russians who came to Serbia in 2022 are not political, but economic migrants. They moved to the Balkan state after the West imposed sanctions on their country, following the Russian invasion of Ukraine. As a result, over the past seven months, close to 800 companies with a majority Russian ownership have been founded in Serbia, mostly for consulting services, IT and commerce.
After Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a partial mobilization on September 21, Serbia has been witnessing the second wave of Russian migrants. It is estimated that more than 100,000 Russians, as well as around 18,000 Ukrainians, have moved to Serbia over the past nine months. Unlike Ukrainians, who have the status of refugees, Russians initially come to Serbia as tourists, given that the Balkan state is one of the few European countries where Russian citizens are eligible to enter without any visa. More importantly, Serbia is one of the few European nations where Russians are not stigmatized by the current political events.
In Serbia, there is a strong pro-Russian sentiment. Polls suggest that 80 percent of the Serbian population firmly oppose their country imposing sanctions on Russia. At the same time, Russian President Vladimir Putin enjoys the support of 45 percent of people in Serbia. On the other hand, very few Serbs speak Russian, hardly anyone listens to Russian music or watches Russian films, which illustrates that the Russian cultural influence in the southeastern European country is almost non-existent.
Serbia is one of the few European nations where Russians are not stigmatized by the current political events.
Russian political activists who have recently moved to Serbia argue that the Serbs’ love for Russia is conditioned by the fact that “they do not know anything about Russia – neither about repression and massive propaganda, nor about cruelty not only against Ukraine but also against opponents of the regime at home.” Although Russians activists have held several anti-war rallies in Belgrade, only 50-100 out of tens of thousands of Russians living in the Serbian capital have attended their gatherings. That, however, does not mean that most Russians in Serbia support Putin. They likely aim to stay out of politics, and focus on their business.
The Serbs, on the other hand, support Russia and Putin mainly as a result of their revolt over the Western actions in the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s, when the West openly supported the Croats, Bosniaks, and Albanians against the Serbs. To this day, the West continues pressuring Serbia to implicitly recognize unilateral secession of Kosovo, while at the same time it resolutely supports Ukraine’s territorial integrity. The Serbian government, for its part, continues balancing its official pro-EU policy with a strong pro-Russian sentiment among the Serbian population. As a result, the country remains in the “eternal EU waiting room”, which allows Belgrade to preserve friendly ties with Moscow.
For Russian migrants, Serbia is undoubtedly a European country, although they do not see it as a “real Europe”. Given that many Russians who have moved to Serbia over the past nine months are pro-Western liberals, they would almost certainly prefer to live in the European Union rather than in Serbia. But under the current geopolitical circumstances, they can hardly obtain a Schengen visa, let alone a temporary residence permit. Thus, for the time being, they remain stuck in Serbia – a country they find attractive due to relatively low cost of living.
Indeed, comparing to Moscow and other big cities in Russia, life in Serbia is very cheap. It is, however, believed that the Russian citizens have contributed a lot to the growing prices of real estate in the Balkan nation. According to reports, Russians are buying apartments and houses in Serbia, which indicates that some of them see their future there. From the Serbian perspective, despite high real estate prices, in the long-term the growing number of Russian migrants can have a positive impact not only on the country’s economy, but also on Serbia’s demographic disaster.
For Russians – especially for young men – life in Serbia might not be ideal, but it is certainly better than going to Ukraine to fight for Putin’s “cunning plans”, “goodwill gestures”, and various lucrative deals his oligarchs are making over the dead Russian bodies.
Finally, given that there is no peace on the horizon in Ukraine, the wave of Russians moving to Serbia will almost certainly continue in 2023.
Image: sonic182