{"id":250517,"date":"2022-03-06T08:38:09","date_gmt":"2022-03-06T08:38:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=250517"},"modified":"2022-03-07T07:52:02","modified_gmt":"2022-03-07T07:52:02","slug":"thousands-of-serbs-march-in-support-of-russia-in-belgrade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=250517","title":{"rendered":"Thousands of Serbs march in support of Russia in Belgrade"},"content":{"rendered":"

Reuters and AFP \u2013 March 5, 2022<\/strong><\/h1>\n

Thousands of Serbs waving Russian flags and carrying pictures of President Vladimir Putin marched through Belgrade to the Russian embassy on Friday (5 February) in a show of public support for Moscow after it invaded Ukraine.<\/p>\n

Serbia is performing a delicate balancing act between its European aspirations, partnership with NATO and its centuries-old religious, ethnic and political alliance with Russia.<\/p>\n

For many ordinary Serbs, the memory of NATO\u2019s bombing of strategic targets in Serbia to bring an end to the bloody Kosovo war is still all too fresh, an action that Russia vehemently opposed at the UN Security Council.<\/p>\n

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic, facing an election next month in which he needs to retain the support of Russian-leaning citizens, has in recent days also repeatedly pointed to Moscow\u2019s long-time backing in the United Nations where it has refused to recognise the independence of Kosovo, insisting it is a part of Serbia.<\/p>\n

\u201cMother Russia will win.\u201d<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Some 4,000 people joined the march after gathering in front of a monument of Russian Tsar Nicholas II in central Belgrade, where they played Russian and Serbian anthems, hailed the two countries as brethren nations, and chanted anti-NATO slogans.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is about saving mankind,\u201d said an elderly man carrying a Russian flag. \u201cThis is a struggle between good and bad, and we know, thank God, that Mother Russia will win.\u201d<\/p>\n

A younger man wearing a cap with a red star symbol said he came to support Russia in everything it does.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the only right thing to do,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Nikola Babic, a 22-year-old security guard, told AFP, \u201cUkraine is being liberated from neo-Nazis. Russians \u2014 our brothers \u2014 are liberating the country, and hopefully the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

Among the protesters were also local members of Russia\u2019s \u201cNight Wolves\u201d motorcycle club, known to have close ties to Putin and with a history of fighting in Ukraine on the side of pro-Russian separatists during the 2014 Crimea crisis and war over the Donbas region.<\/p>\n

The political views of many in Serbia are influenced by tabloids close to Vucic, which have echoed Moscow\u2019s sentiment of the war in Ukraine. One carried the headline \u2018Ukraine attacked Russia!\u2019 on the first day of the invasion.<\/p>\n

But there is also support for Ukraine, with dozens protesting Russia\u2019s invasion in front of its embassy earlier this week and more events expected over the weekend.<\/p>\n

Russia calls its actions a \u2018special operation\u2019 designed not to occupy territory but to destroy its neighbour\u2019s military capabilities and capture what it regards as dangerous nationalists. The government has banned media from using the word \u201cinvasion\u201d when referring to their actions.<\/p>\n

Many protesters carried placards with the letter Z on them \u2013 the symbol that has been seen on Russian tanks in Ukraine.<\/p>\n

Earlier on Friday, Vucic told Ukraine\u2019s ambassador in Serbia that Belgrade respects international law and the territorial integrity of Ukraine and that it stands ready to provide humanitarian aid and accept refugees.<\/p>\n

Serbia, which relies on Moscow for its energy needs, also joined the UN General Assembly\u2019s condemnation of Russia\u2019s attack but has repeatedly refused to introduce sanctions against Moscow.<\/p>\n

Vucic has said the country is coming under intense pressure to harmonise its foreign policy with the European Union, which it aims to join.<\/p>\n

The country\u2019s flag carrier Air Serbia even increased its flights to Russia when the EU and other Western Balkan countries have banned Russian planes from its airspace.<\/p>\n

Vucic has successfully juggled Serbia\u2019s relations with eastern and western powers for years, scoring substantial financial aid from the European Union alongside significant business deals with China and arms deals with Russia.<\/p>\n

Critics and rights groups have accused Vucic of eroding democracy, including curbing media freedoms and undermining institutions in a similar manner to Moscow.<\/p>\n

Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Crowds of Serbs take to the streets in Belgrade in support of \u201cMother Russia\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39262,"featured_media":250519,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[58,91],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-250517","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-Current_Affairs","category-russia"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250517","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/39262"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=250517"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250517\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":250518,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250517\/revisions\/250518"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/250519"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=250517"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=250517"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=250517"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}