SERBIA: Unlawful Murder Trial & more – 13th Jan 2026

Dobar dan from Oakley! This is the Rorshok Serbia Update from the 13th of January twenty twenty-six. A quick summary of what's going down in Serbia.

On Friday the 9th, the Supreme Court in Belgrade said that the Court of Appeal violated the law in the murder trial of opposition journalist Slavko Curuvija. Three years ago, the Court of Appeal acquitted four men suspected of Curuvija’s murder which took place in nineteen ninety-nine in front of his home in Belgrade. However, the Supreme Court ruled that the Court of Appeal falsified records of some testimony and phone conversations, which led to their eventual acquittal.

Curuvija was a famous journalist, best known for his outspoken criticism of the regime, which many believe was the reason behind his death. The acquittal of the four men in twenty twenty-three, twenty-four years after the murder, sent shock waves through the country as it lamented the dwindling state of media freedom and a lack of justice.

Speaking of media freedom, as we have been saying in previous updates, an army of trolls from the ruling regime took our YouTube channel down by making several complaints to the platform. However, we created a new channel, and we will keep telling the truth, even if the ruling regime doesn’t like it.

Meanwhile, Miroslav Jovanovic, a lecturer in International Economics at the University of Geneva, wrote an opinion piece in Serbian about the shortcomings of the government’s decision to defund education. Jovanovic pointed out the government’s March twenty twenty-four decision to cut the budget for higher education, reducing the time for research from twenty hours a week to just five, forcing researchers to focus on teaching. He said that such a policy weakens the innovation capacity.

Jovanovic said that defunding research and education is not common among successful economies, such as the US, Switzerland and China, which invest a lot into education. Meanwhile, Serbia mainly funds infrastructure projects, which are visible, contrary to research. Jovanovic concluded that Serbia risks stagnation in the field of innovation due to these decisions.

Check out Jovanovic’s piece with the link in the show notes.

In foreign affairs, Serbia joined the EU’s sanctions against Venezuela. The EU said that the restrictive measures, adopted in December twenty twenty-four, target Venezuela’s officials whose actions undermined democracy and the rule of law, violated human rights and promoted the repression of civil society.

Alignment with EU foreign policy is a must for a candidate country, such as Serbia. However, the country is still defying the EU in imposing sanctions on Russia due to its war in Ukraine, which is one of the reasons why Serbia has made little to no progress on its EU accession path.

Not only has excusing Russia cost Serbia its EU progress, but it could also impact its economy, as a new US bill proposes tariffs of at least 500 percent on imports from countries that buy Russian energy. The US explained that such a bill aims to cut Russia’s finances in order to defund its war in Ukraine.

Even though the bill is still under consideration, Serbia is facing a real possibility of being affected by the tariffs due to its dependence on Russia for energy.

Going back to the EU for a second, Serbia remains one of the few Western Balkan countries that has not received its regular payments under the Union’s Growth Plan. Serbia has by twenty twenty-seven to implement just short of a hundred reforms, and it could receive up to 185 billion dinars, around 1.8 billion dollars. Contrary to candidate countries like Albania, Montenegro and North Macedonia, which are implementing these reforms and are receiving payments from the fund, Serbia has still not tackled the reforms, with conditions on elections, rule of law and transparency worsening. In return, Serbia has only seen a portion of the fund, or the pre-financing, which amounts to seven percent of the total sum, around thirteen billion dinars (130 million dollars).

In other news, Serbia has announced a state of emergency due to heavy snow and low temperatures across eleven municipalities on Sunday the 11th. Some of the municipalities affected are facing power and water outages, as icy blizzards have ruined transmission lines. People in these municipalities have raised concerns about being completely snowed in, without drinking water or electricity to preserve food, even reporting instances of signal loss, making it impossible to call for help. More than 2,000 families celebrated Christmas without power or food.

Government officials and the president himself keep insisting that there are teams working to solve the issue, despite the outages entering their eleventh day.

Roads across Serbia are also snowed in, but students took matters into their own hands to clean them.

For weeks, motorways and highways have been covered in ice, causing traffic and posing a risk of accidents due to sliding. Officials have been addressing this issue on TV, stating that road workers are maintaining roads and clearing the ice. However, the results are nowhere to be seen. They even boasted that Serbia is currently clearing roads faster and more efficiently than European countries.

Meanwhile, students, fed up with the situation, organized a road-clearing action, spending days breaking up and shoveling ice and snow from city roads. In many places, police were present, but refused to help them.

While some students are clearing roads, those from the University of Nis in the country’s south launched an initiative to help people buy groceries, medicine and other basic necessities. They published a form where those in need can apply for help. The initiative mostly aims to aid the elderly, disabled people, chronically ill people, or anyone who is prevented from doing their shopping in the cold, icy weather.

In some festive news, on Wednesday the 7th Serbia celebrated Orthodox Christmas! At the temple of St Sava in Belgrade, patriarch Porfirije held a service, with bakers from the city bringing a 260-kilo, or around 570-pound, unleavened bread for the traditional breaking of a loaf in search of a coin. Across the country, churches held services and burned Badnjak - a tradition where an oak log is tossed in a fire which then produces stunning sparks.

On the economic front, many experts believe that twenty twenty-six will bring a wave of price increases. With higher prices for utility services, energy, taxes, and excise duties already taking effect, economists warn that the cost of living for most citizens will increase, while wage growth will barely keep pace. State officials said that these price hikes are a product of the country’s adjustment to inflation and European standards, but citizens are facing prices comparable to those in European countries while earning significantly less.

Another pressure on the Serbian economy will come from the newly introduced taxes on greenhouse gas emissions and on the import of products with a high carbon footprint, which economists say can increase product costs.

On that note about carbon, the Ministry of Mining announced a new draft law on hydrocarbon exploration and exploitation. The ministry said that it aims to establish a legal framework for hydrocarbon exploration, which includes oil, natural gas, and condensates, and their preparation and transport. It will also regulate the storage of carbon dioxide in order to lower greenhouse gas emissions. They added that by developing this law, they would align with European regulations which are big on environmental protection.

Closing this edition with some cultural updates, on Saturday the 10th Belgrade’s Yugoslav Film Archive began its movie marathon series which will run until the 21st of February. The marathon features a series of free screenings of forty-one domestic cinema classics that have been digitally restored. Some of the movies featured include Who Sings Over There, The Marathon Family, and The Elusive Summer of '68.

For more information about the Yugoslav Film Archive Marathon, check out the link in the show notes!

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

Quick question, is there a specific monopoly in Serbia you think is a big problem? Let us know at info@rorshok.com

Vidimo se!