Page 46 - bneMag Oct23

46 I Southeast Europe bne October 2023
Belgrade started challenging the residencies of anti-war Russians who moved to Serbia after the invasion of Ukraine. / bne IntelliNews
Josip Broz Tito managed to remain neutral in the Cold War and formed the Non-Aligned Movement.
However, many do not understand that, unlike in the socialist era, jobs in countries like Serbia today depend on foreign investments. Nor do they understand that close ties with the Russian government are not good in the eyes of potential investors and employers.
The brightest side of the decision to try and be ‘neutral like Switzerland’ was giving a chance to anti-regime and anti- invasion individuals to leave Russia and avoid the most certain retaliation. Now this is being undermined.
Still welcome?
In a similar theme, Serbia is also keen to attract foreign workers after a significant part of Serbia’s own qualified workforce has left the country to work in Western countries. That left Serbia in need of
bus drivers, tradesmen, nurses and other workers, and in turn, it imports them from other countries. Serbia has
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a growing foreign workforce, attracted by the quality of life, friendly climate (both social and natural), guaranteed health insurance, good education and geographical position.
Among these immigrants, since
the invasion of Ukraine, are many Russians. The possibility to fly directly from Moscow to Belgrade without a
visa helped many Russians to avoid conscription. Others left to keep their jobs when the companies they worked for had to leave the Russian market because of the sanctions; many Russian companies relocated to Serbia. Yet others left in order to continue their own business with Western companies and opened their own enterprises in Serbia.
The Serbian Ministry of Interior told the BBC’s Serbian service in August that 370,000 Russians entered Serbia since the invasion of Ukraine. Almost 30,000 received permanent residency. The total number of expats in Serbia is not known but just one Facebook group of foreigners residing in Belgrade has over 10,000 members.
Again, the recent targeting of anti-war Russians conflicts with the efforts to attract workers from abroad. According to Nikittin, legal protection is crucial for all expats.
Volokhonsky’s situation, meanwhile,
is attracting a lot of media attention that does not send out a good signal to people that plan to move their businesses to Serbia.
“The Serbian government makes a lot
of effort to attract people to come to Serbia and invest here but their effort is destroyed by some bureaucrat who is not happy because I openly condemn Putin and his war,” Volokhonsky said in an interview with daily Danas in late July.
Malign influence
Anti-war Russians faced issues with Serbian authorities just a few days after the director of the BIA, Aleksandar Vulin, was put on US list of sanctioned individuals, accused of spreading malign Russian influence. Vulin has never hidden his admiration for Russia and its president. He even occasionally meets