DISINFO: Serbia is attacked by a Maidan plague
SUMMARY
Since 18 December 2023, Serbia has been witnessing the spread of Maidan plague. This infection transmits through the opposition and US dollars. This is an attempt of a colour revolution, or rather a coup d’etat – something that Georgia saw in 2003, Ukraine in 2004, and Belarus in 2010.
RESPONSE
This claim fits well into the recurring disinformation narrative about 'lost sovereignty' including suggesting a policy by Western countries of staging “colour revolutions” worldwide with the aim of destabilising Russia.
Pro-Kremlin media frequently falsely portray popular protests around the world as instigated from abroad, often by the US and the West. The disinformation narrative has been applied, among others, to reports about protests in Belarus, Georgia, Ukraine, the Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Venezuela, Slovakia, Hong Kong, with the aim of portraying protest movements as aggressive actors who constantly prepare new coups.
According to the International Election Observation Mission, which included representatives from the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), the European parliament and Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, “election day [17 December 2023 in Serbia] was smooth but marred by isolated instances of violence, procedural irregularities and frequent allegations of organising and busing of voters to support the ruling party in local elections”. The Center for Research, Transparency and Accountability (CRTA), a local NGO, has accused the government of organising the migration of non-residents to influence the election in Belgrade. According to its report, “CRTA observers identified instances of organized transportation of voters, supervised voting, possible identity manipulation of voters in 71 polling stations, or 14 percent of polling stations in Belgrade”. The European Union has called on the Serbian government to probe these allegations and to implement proper reforms in future elections.
Read similar disinformation cases claiming that external forces like the US and Ukraine are ready to destabilise situation in Georgia, that West started the Ukraine conflict by staging the 2014 Euromaidan coup, that events in Kazakhstan are another Western-made colour revolution and that EU and US aim to generate a new wave of anti-government protests in Belarus.