DISINFO: The West decided to organise another colour revolution in Serbia
SUMMARY
In 2022, Serbian nationalist President Aleksandar Vučić did not join the pan-European anti-Russian wave, trying to maintain normal relations with both the West and Russia. [...T]he leadership of Western states [...] decided to organise another "colour revolution" in Serbia.
RESPONSE
Recurrent pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative falsely framing the recent protests in Serbia during December 2023 as Western-backed, aiming to portray them as foreign-orchestrated destabilisation efforts. No evidence supports these allegations.
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 Georgia, Ukraine, Armenia, the Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Belarus, Venezuela, Slovakia, Hong Kong, to portray protest movements as aggressive actors who constantly prepare new coups.
The protests in Serbia were sparked by reported electoral violations during the recent parliamentary and local elections, won by the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS). An international monitoring mission noted "the misuse of public resources, the lack of separation between the official functions and campaign activities, and intimidation and pressure on voters, including cases of vote buying".
Reinhold Lopatka, head of the OSCE observer mission said: “while the elections were technically well-organised, they unfolded amid a socially and politically divided landscape. The decisive involvement of the President dominated the electoral process, and the use of his name by one of the candidate lists, together with bias in the media, contributed to an uneven playing field".
See similar cases: the West wants to destabilise Kazakhstan to open a second front against Russia; the West plans to destabilise Central Asia; that the US is preparing a Maidan in Georgia; Euromaidan was a foreign-sponsored violent coup.