DISINFO: Protests in Serbia are inspired and funded by the West
SUMMARY
We are no longer dealing with a two-year-long wave of protests; it no longer looks like a signal but blackmail. The protests were inspired and financed by the West and were used as an instrument of blackmail.
Brussels is trying to eliminate Vucic. However, Brussels is systematically trying to unseat Vucic and is supporting the attempts at a ‘Maidan’ in Serbia.
If Belgrade does not stop supporting the Russian Federation, these protests could become a full-fledged colour revolution. The US often acted in this way.
RESPONSE
Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative framing popular protests as Western-backed ‘colour revolutions’. By baselessly describing Serbian demonstrators as Western stooges, this disinformation story seeks to discredit them and drive attention away from Serbian domestic political problems.
There is no evidence of any Western involvement in Serbia’s protests. Demonstrations in the country started in mid-December 2024 after the collapse of a concrete infrastructure in a railway station in Novi Sad killed 15 people, an incident that many protesters blamed on corruption. The protest movement was led by students, but soon professors, lawyers and other professionals joined them, pointing to widespread dissatisfaction with Alexander Vucic’s government. Due to the protests across Serbia, on 28 January 2025, Serbia's PM Milos Vuchevic resigned.
Framing his resignation or any eventual exit of President Vucic as a “coup” and claiming, without evidence, that it would lead to chaos are manipulative narratives used in this disinformation story.
Comparing the Ukrainian Maidan protests in 2013-2014 with the Serbian protests and claiming that they had the same “masterminds” is a typical disinformation narrative that excludes the active participation of citizens in the political process.
Read other examples of similar disinformation narratives claiming that: Serbia on the verge of chaos after the West sent an ultimatum to Belgrade, that West wants to subjugate Serbian president with colour revolution tools and that foreign powers tried to instigate a colour revolution in Serbia.