SERBIA: Military Parade & more – 25th Sep 2025

Dobar dan from Keswick Village! This is the Rorshok Serbia Update from the 25th of September twenty twenty-five. A quick summary of what's going down in Serbia.

On Saturday the 20th, the government staged one of the largest military parades in Serbia’s history. Titled Strength of Unity, the parade showcased the modernized arsenal of the country, including more than 2,500 weapons, 600 vehicles, seventy aircraft, and twenty naval vessels. Student protesters also organized a rally in support of the soldiers marching in the parade, adding that the army is for the citizens, and not for the state officials.

President Vucic presided over the parade and said that it symbolizes Serbia’s strength and stability. However, political analysts say that the parade did not only aim to show off its new arsenal, but to intimidate demonstrators in Serbia who have been protesting for nearly a year.

Recall that the students across the country have been protesting since the deadly canopy incident at the Novi Sad railway station in the north, demanding accountability from the state.

Speaking of the protesting students, they marched in Novi Sad in the previous days in support of the students who are in police custody. Together with Citizens' Assemblies, the students demanded the release of all people detained who participated in the protests. They specifically put attention to Bogdan Jovicic, a student who went on a hunger strike after he was arrested

The Party of European Socialists also expressed its concerns for Jovicic’s life and well-being. They accused Vucic of taking authoritarian measures against those who oppose his rule, calling it an attack on democracy and human rights.

Meanwhile, the police and the government are accusing the detained demonstrators of violence against the police, despite the evidence on social media showing a completely different story: peaceful protesters and police brutality.

On that note about the students and the EU, the European Parliament group Renew Europe has nominated Serbian students for the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought. At the Parliament’s session on Tuesday the 23rd, the committees presented all eight nominees for the award, during which they stressed that the students’ fight for the rule of law embodied the core principles of the EU. Aside from Serbian students, nominees for the award include journalists and activists from various countries, including Palestine, Georgia, and Poland.

The European Parliament noted that the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought is awarded to those who have protected freedom of thought. Last year, the prize went to an opposition figure in Venezuela. The European Parliament said that it will announce the winner in late October.

In more news from Europe, the European Commission denied recent Russian accusations that said the EU was behind the protests in Serbia. The representatives of the Commission told Serbian news reporters that such accusations are just Russia’s attempts at spreading disinformation and harboring hostile political rhetoric against the EU.

For context, two weeks ago, the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service, or SVR, announced that it had proof that the student protests in Serbia are a product of the subversive activities by the EU. President Vucic thanked the SVR and further spread the allegations on TV, supporting the story.

Student protesters in Serbia denied the SVR’s accusations, pointing out that they had no evidence to support them, noting that Russia is just afraid of losing its grip over Serbia, due to the students leaning towards the EU and the West.

Since we mentioned the West, on Thursday the 18th, Serbian state-owned gas company NIS has requested yet another sanctions waiver from the US. The sanctions are set to take effect on the 26th of September. However, NIS has put in significant effort to fulfill the US’ demands this time by removing the share of the Russian energy major Gazprom almost entirely. By lowering Gazprom’s share, NIS has reduced Russian ownership to less than half.

Recall that in January the US Treasury Department announced that it would impose sanctions on NIS as part of broader measures to target the Russian energy sector, noting that it funds the war in Ukraine. At the time, Russia’s Gazprom and Gazprom Neft together owned more than half of the company’s stakes, prompting the US to push Serbia to reduce Russian ownership.

However, NIS is not the only link between Serbia and Russia when it comes to energy, as the Serbian authorities announced their plan to cooperate with the Russian state corporation Rosatom to build nuclear power plants in Serbia. While still in the process of selecting a partner for the development of nuclear energy, Serbian officials said that Russia offered the most favorable deal.

Serbia has been looking into diversifying its energy supplies for a while now, mainly due to the West pressuring the country to distance itself from Russia. It has been considering nuclear energy for a while, noting that energy consumption nationwide will quadruple by twenty fifty.

Going back to the army for a second, last week Bratislav Gasic, the Defence minister, announced the likely return of compulsory military service. He said that if the parliament approves the mandatory military service law, the first recruits could be called to serve as early as January next year. Gasic said that the Serbian Armed Forces are preparing facilities for the recruits, and that they are working on refurbishing military stations and sections.

Political analysts worry that the introduction of mandatory military service could signal militarization and political control.

Meanwhile, Serbia leads in the number of media freedom violations in Europe. The Media Freedom Rapid Response platform, or the MFRR, announced on Wednesday the 17th that Serbia registered around a hundred media freedom violations in the first half of twenty twenty-five, followed by Georgia with around seventy and Turkey with sixty.

The MFRR stated that since the start of the student protests in late November, media employees have been working under heavy pressure from the state officials and authorities. The platform expressed deep concerns about censorship, smear campaigns, abuse of legal proceedings, and threats to journalists in Serbia.

In previous weeks we spoke about recently enforced profit margins for retailers in Serbia. On Wednesday the 24th, Jagoda Lazarevic, the trade minister, announced the results of an inspection they had conducted, saying that two major retailers - Delhaize and Veropoulos - violated the regulation. Recall that the regulation on profit margins came into force in order to lower the prices of regular household items, mostly concerning food.

Lazarevic said that seventy out of eighty-three Delhaize markets ignored the profit margins, which meant that product prices were the same as before the regulation. As for Veropoulos, three out of three markets violated the regulation. The minister added that they will have to pay a fine amounting to a total of 25.5 million dinars, which is around 250,000 dollars.

On a brighter note, Novi Sad is set to introduce a new kind of public space for its citizens called green rooms, under a project of the same name. These new urban spaces will feature green walls composed of plants, solar panels to provide electricity for users, alongside books and magazines dedicated to green concepts and ecology. Novi Sad’s public utility company said that green rooms aim to improve the microclimate and micro-environmental conditions in urban areas of the city.

Closing this edition with some cultural news, the European Researchers’ Night science fair will take place on Friday the 26th in sixteen cities in Serbia and in another twenty-four other countries. Under the slogan Keeping Up with Science, the fair will feature various panels and activities for both adults and children. The entry to the fair is free.

For more information about the European Researchers’ Night, check out the link in the show notes!

Aaand that’s it for this week! Thank you for joining us!

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Do daljnjeg, zbogom!