07.10.2016.

Russia Gives Serbia the Choice: Satellite or Bargaining Chip

SWP Research Paper

Dušan Reljić

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin did not mince his words when he received
Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vučić in the Kremlin on 26 May
2016. After congratulating Vučić on his latest election victory, Putin
expressed his hopes that there will be “a worthy place” in the new government
in Belgrade for those who “give serious attention to developing”
Russian-Serbian relations.1 The Russian president is well aware that Vučić
has long been seeking EU membership for Serbia and closer relations with
NATO.2 Putin’s expression of “hope” was thus in fact an unmistakable
demand for Belgrade to change course and heed the Kremlin’s wishes. Moscow
is warning that when its patience with Belgrade’s equivocation
between east and west runs out, Serbia will have to choose whether it
wants be Russia’s satellite – or its bargaining chip.

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