A media watchdog group's report is prompting renewed scrutiny of the role Serbia is playing in the dissemination of Russian propaganda in the Balkans, particularly as it concerns Moscow's war on Ukraine.
"Thanks to the Serbian government's grip on the media and favorable political environment, RT — formerly Russia Today — uses its Belgrade office to adapt the Kremlin's narratives before disseminating them across southeastern Europe," said the report from Reporters Without Borders (RSF), which was updated early this week.
The Paris-based watchdog group added that it "calls on the European Union (EU) and its member states to hold Serbia accountable for hosting [Russian President] Vladimir Putin's factory of lies."
The EU's response was not long in coming. On Tuesday, EU spokesperson for external affairs Peter Stano called on Serbia to take urgent measures to counter Russian media manipulation and interference.
"The European Union has adopted sanctions against Russian state-owned media, including RT," Stano told Agence France-Presse, adding that those outlets have become an instrument of Russia's war against Ukraine and "a channel for the dissemination and manipulation of information."
A day earlier, Pavol Szalai, head of the Europe and Balkans desk at RSF, told AFP that the Serbian government was allowing the country, an EU candidate nation, to be used as "an amplifier and translator of Kremlin propaganda in the Balkans."
In a post on X, Arno Guyon, who heads the Serbian government's Office for Public and Cultural Diplomacy, responded to the comments by the EU's Stano and RSF's Szalai, calling them "very worrying."
"It reminds of the period of communism during which censorship was applied in Yugoslavia in the name of fighting against 'harmful or undesirable ideas.' It contradicts the values of pluralism, tolerance and freedom of speech, which the Serbs believe in and for which numerous Serbian intellectuals who were imprisoned and killed because of it fought."
Asked by VOA's Serbian Service about the accusations concerning the Serbian government's alleged role in disseminating Russian disinformation, the U.S. State Department responded:
"Media manipulation and interference poses significant risks to democratic processes and societal stability in Serbia and the Western Balkans. The Department of State's Global Engagement Center previously warned that the Kremlin's state-funded and state-directed media outlets RT and Sputnik are critical elements in Russia's disinformation and propaganda ecosystem."
The State Department added that it would continue its cooperation with Serbian partners in responding to RT's activities.
In September, U.S. President Joe Biden's administration announced new measures to thwart the activities of the Russian state-funded and -directed media company Rossiya Segodnya, and five of its subsidiaries, including RT.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said those Russian state media entities "are no longer merely firehoses of Russian Government propaganda and disinformation," but are engaged in "covert influence activities aimed at undermining American elections and democracies, functioning like a de facto arm of Russia's intelligence apparatus."
"Thanks to new information — much of which originates from RT employees — we know that RT possess cyber capabilities and engaged in covert information and influence operations and military procurement," Blinken said. "As part of RT's expanded capabilities, the Russian Government embedded within RT a unit with cyber operational capabilities and ties to Russian intelligence. RT's leadership had direct, witting knowledge of this enterprise."
RT Balkan, which has existed in Serbia since 2022, publishes its content on the internet and social media. Sputnik Serbia, a subsidiary of Russia's Sputnik state news agency, arrived in the country a little earlier, in 2017.
Ruslan Trad, a resident fellow for security research with the Atlantic Council's Digital Forensic Research Lab, told VOA that the Serbian government is providing Russia with a platform for building a serious infrastructure, which also includes a media presence.
"Russian propaganda media use Serbia to establish a presence in the wider region," he said. "They use different methods, such as advertising platforms on Google that users have confidence in, in order to redirect them to the contents of 'Russia Today' or other Russian or pro-Russian media in the Serbian language."
Trad believes that the Serbian authorities will ignore the criticism expressed by the European Union and non-governmental organizations.
"Belgrade 's position is clear. The European Union, which has economic interests in Serbia related to lithium, will do little more than comment," he said. "[Serbian President Aleksandar] Vucic doesn't see it as a problem, so things will continue to work in the same way."
Still, Trad said the Serbian government's relationships with Russia and the West are provisional, not set in stone.
"It is obvious that Belgrade enables all this out of interest, and not because it is pressed against the wall," he said. "Unlike other countries in the region, Serbia sees the Russian Federation as an ally, but not as a partner at any cost. It is no coincidence that Belgrade also has ties with China, the U.S. and European countries such as France."
He added: "However, if it wants to become a part of the European family, Belgrade will have to implement the rule of law and improve the situation in the media environment."
