The battlefield of "Wagner" in Serbia

Bosko Jaksic / Photo: MIA

Members of the mercenary Russian group "Wagner" are chasing Russian critics of the Kremlin around Belgrade, but it is even more dangerous that they are trying to destabilize the Western Balkans and thus divert part of the attention of the world public away from what is happening in Ukraine

Shall I court "Wagner"? I will not flatter anyone, neither you nor NATO have anything to do in Serbia.

"Wagner" has nothing to look for in Serbia? The controllers of Russia's largest private military, whose mercenaries fought across the Middle East and Africa, and whose bots were hired to pursue the Kremlin's strategic interests, are unlikely to agree.

- We interfered, we interfere and we will continue to interfere in the American elections - Yevgeny Prigozhin, founder of "Wagner" and a person close to Vladimir Putin, said without restraint in December. Why would you not interfere in Serbia?

Since it was formed in 2014, the group has boasted that it has stopped the genocide of the Russian population in the Donbass, destroyed Islamic State jihadists in Syria and Iraq, and eliminated thousands of terrorists in Mali, Sudan, Mozambique, the Central African Republic and Libya.

After all the military experiences, the Wagnerites gained particular importance after the series of defeats of the Russian army in the east and south of Ukraine in the autumn of 2022. More generals and officers were lost in the "special military operation" than in seven years of intervention in Syria and more than the Soviets lost during the entire decade-long war in Afghanistan.

Vladimir Putin has never achieved absolute dominance over the army, and the Wagners' roughly XNUMX mercenaries on the frontlines across the Donbas help him rein in his only credible opposition: militant military and intelligence nationalists who are dissatisfied with the way the war is being waged and with the results.

Prigozhin, the only one besides Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov to command a private army, forged an alliance with the top of the Russian military hierarchy. Provide access to the most advanced weapons and platforms. There is no private army in the world that has the S-300 strategic missile system at its disposal.

Such "Wagner", which is on the sanctions list of the European Union, is of course under special supervision by the United States. Several senators introduced a bill in Congress in December to designate Wagner a "foreign terrorist organization."

Provocateurs at the Jarinje crossing

The American portal "Politico" recently obtained access to secret documents in which it is stated that the United States is concerned about the spread of "Wagner" outside of Russia, including Serbia.

Many things became visible after the defense technology center was inaugurated in St. Petersburg last September. Then the center was visited by the leader of the ultra-right Serbian People's Patrol, Damnjan Knežević, and the director of the newly formed Russian-Serbian association "Orlovi", Aleksandar Lisov. Knezevic suggested on Putin's Russia Today television that war is the only real solution and that it is time to resolve the Kosovo issue in the same way that Russia took back Crimea.

The Wagnerites will certainly deal with Russian "liberals" who have avoided conscription and with criticism that undermines Russophile sentiment, but their task could be much more serious and dangerous: to make Serbia a "battlefield", as the director of the Euro-Atlantic Union wrote of Serbia and former MP from SNS, Dragan Šormaz. To destabilize the Western Balkans and thus divert part of the attention of the world public away from what is happening in Ukraine - from the destruction of the energy structure that left millions of people without electricity and heating, to the destruction of cities across the Donbass, behind which it is possible that brutal war crimes are hidden.

It is no coincidence that the mentioned leader of the People's Patrol during the tensions related to the blockades of the Jarinje crossing in Kosovo wore a cap with the symbol of Wagner's mercenaries - a skull on the Russian flag. On whose instructions did he call on the "Serb brothers" to set out to "liberate Jarinje"?

Are there Wagnerians in Serbia?

How did it happen that "RT" television, which recently resumed its work in Serbia, published Wagner's advertisement for the recruitment of volunteers for the war against Ukraine? How did the mural dedicated to the Wagnerites, with the signature People's Patrol, appear under Belgrade's Brankov Bridge?

It was a clear message that the Wagnerites are relying on an elaborate intelligence-propaganda network and local ideological allies to draw Serbia into a tighter embrace with Russia and further alienate it from the West.

Does Vucic's remark that "Belgrade is like Casablanca" and that "since the Second World War there have not been so many spies occupying our hotels" apply to the Wagnerians? It sounded like a provocation for the Serbian services - why did they not arrest us in the face of that knowledge - but it seems that it is all part of a much wider game.

Why does the state not answer the questions of whether or not there were Wagnerians in Serbia? Is it known how many of the mercenaries are citizens of Serbia? The silence is legitimately interpreted as fear of criticism from the Russians. And as a confirmation of the thesis that almost all extreme right-wing groups in Serbia are under the control of the regime and that they serve Vucic to manipulate the West.

If the Russians today are much more skilled in warfare than they were before, as Vucic noted on one occasion, does this open the possibility for "Wagner" to outplay Serbian politicians and intelligence officers and make Serbia a "battlefield"?

(The author is a journalist)

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