The Russian state channel Russia Today (RT) began broadcasting online in Serbian amid critical statements from the European Union, which had previously imposed sanctions against this media corporation due to the spread of propaganda and misinformation. In addition to the website, RT Balkan is available on Telegram as well as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok and YouTube. Broadcasting of TV programs will begin by 2024. Taking into account the language factor, the new project can count on an audience not only in Serbia, but also in Montenegro, Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as in any countries where the ex-Yugoslav diaspora lives.
“Becoming a part of the media space of the Balkans is a big challenge for us. We are ready for it,” said Elena Milinchich, editor-in-chief of RT Balkan. According to her, this portal will present "the Russian view of the world", and the need for its launch has become "even more obvious since March of this year, when all European RT channels were turned off."
In the EU, RT is called a key channel for the dissemination of Russian propaganda, and its work is subject to international sanctions imposed after Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The Serbian authorities, despite regular calls from Brussels, refuse to join the European sanctions, although Belgrade is a candidate for EU membership.
“Serbia should not be a center of disinformation from the Kremlin,” Vladimir Bilchik, European Parliament rapporteur on Serbia, said this week. “RT is one of the instruments of Russian propaganda and disinformation that accompanies the illegal aggression against Ukraine and the murder of the Ukrainian people,” EU Foreign and Security Policy Speaker Peter Stano said earlier.
Serbian director Emir Kusturica was one of the first to express support for the new project in the Balkans: “RT is the best example of how television should be, unlike the BBC and CNN, where they show one-sided information.” Kusturica, who was awarded the Order of Friendship by Putin, is among the best-known figures promoting pro-Kremlin content and “Russian world” ideas in the region. And at official events, he sometimes makes scandalous statements like “asking God to give him a small atomic bomb.”
The RT international television network includes channels in English, Arabic, Spanish, French, German and the RTD documentary channel in Russian and English. The network also includes online portals in seven languages and a multimedia agency, Ruptly, which offers its own content to various TV channels.
Judging by the materials posted on the new site , considerable attention is paid to the events around Ukraine with accusatory accents against the Ukrainian authorities and the promotion of the thesis that “Russian intervention in Ukraine is a typical preventive self-defense.
According to some observers, the emergence of another state-owned Russian media outlet, in addition to Sputnik, will strengthen Serbia's reputation as a base for spreading Russian influence and disinformation in the region. The pro-Kremlin media here can be roughly divided into two groups: state-owned Russian media and local pro-government publications that positively cover the cooperation between the Serbian government and Moscow.
At the same time, a network of “independent” journalists, experts and Internet trolls operates in the region, publishing similar pro-Kremlin content in various publications and social networks, using both their own profiles and the pages of well-known projects like the Immortal Regiment. They combine topics relevant to the Kremlin with the promotion of the idea of Russian-Serbian brotherhood, hatred of the Russian opposition and foreign opponents of the Kremlin, anti-Semitism and homophobia.
Russian information policy in the Balkans is increasingly attracting the attention of critics. At the end of last year, there was a scandal in Serbia due to the work of the German-language TV channel RT auf Deutsch (RT DE). This channel was launched on December 16, and a week later it was removed from broadcasting in Europe. The launch was made possible thanks to the service of the Serbian authorities, who urgently issued a broadcasting license in a closed regime. Since the Serbian media regulator granted the license shortly after Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic's visit to Russia, some observers saw it as part of a lucrative gas deal that was of particular importance to Vucic at the start of his campaign.
Vucic himself rarely comments on the work of the pro-Russian media and does not prevent the spread of pro-Kremlin disinformation. For example, the tabloid Informer, close to the Serbian authorities, published a message after the start of the war that “Ukraine attacked Russia.” This fake has not been refuted and is still available to readers. Vucic himself sometimes makes statements that are not based on facts, consonant with the statements of Russian propagandists. Thus, in an interview with TV Pink, the Serbian leader argued that "the world will be plunged into hell if world leaders do not heed the proposals of the Russian president."
Serbia is one of the few countries where rallies in support of the Kremlin's policies have taken place since the start of the Russian offensive in Ukraine, and where graffiti depicting Putin or the letter "Z", which is one of the symbols of the invasion, periodically appear. Under Vucic, studies show, Serbia has opened the door to Russian influence and the spread of pro-Kremlin sympathies in the region. Dozens of organizations and websites have appeared here promoting a conservative and anti-Western agenda, a positive image of Putin, Russia and its military power.