"I'm not Russian, I'm a Russophile," snapped Tihomir Perić, president of the Nis branch of the Russian Party, in a conversation with journalists.
It is this party that could become a decisive factor in the struggle for supremacy in Niš, the third largest city in Serbia, because it won one mandate - that is how far the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) and its coalition partners need to gain a majority in the future city parliament, according to official the results of the June 2 election.
The Russian party participated in the elections in Niš, as well as in Belgrade, as well as in the December parliamentary elections, as a minority party, so they did not have to fight to pass the census, but only to cross the so-called natural threshold for entering the assembly.
"Our politics make us a minority party, as well as the few Russians we have among our members," says Predrag Stanković from Niš, vice-president of the local branch of the Russian Party, for the BBC in Serbian.
He adds that "currently he does not have access to records on the exact number of Russian citizens who are members of the party".
"Russians who have moved since the beginning of the war in Ukraine may not like the name of our party, but they are free to return to Russia," says Stankovic.
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Since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, tens of thousands of Russians have immigrated to Serbia, but they do not have the right to vote in local elections in Serbia.
One of them is Marina Bulganjina, who has been living in Belgrade for more than two years.
"I haven't even heard of that party," Bulganjina told the BBC in Serbian.
When a polling station was organized in Belgrade in March of this year in order to could vote in the Russian presidential elections, the name of Russian President Vladimir Putin was circled by only about three percent of them.
In December 2023, in the parliamentary elections in Serbia, the Russian party won one mandate and entered the republican assembly for the first time, where it is represented by party president Slobodan Nikolić.
In the local elections in Belgrade on June 2, they won two mandates for the city assembly, also as a minority party.
Prema according to the 2022 census data, about 10.500 Russians live in Serbia, and according to to the Census Act, that number includes permanently settled foreigners, as well as foreigners with approved temporary residence.
This means that the census data includes only newly arrived Russians who managed to administratively regulate their residence status from February 2022, when the invasion of Ukraine began, to October 2022, when the census was conducted.
Who does the Russian party represent?
"Party members are Russophiles, Serbs who have Russia in their hearts, as well as Russian descendants," He said the leader of the Russian Party, Slobodan Nikolić, in an interview in 2018.
Stanković says that today's membership is "colorful".
"We have young people who are delighted with the image and work of Vladimir Putin, and among the older ones there are many former members of the Serbian Radical Party who, disillusioned with the politics of Vojislav Seselj, moved to us".
Prema according to the data of the Republic Institute of Statistics, there are 121 Russians living in Niš, more precisely those who declared themselves to be of Russian nationality.
"I am Russian too, I declared myself as such in the last census," says Nišlija Predrag Stanković.
Immediately after the Nis election commission announced on Monday that the SNS list has 30 mandates, i.e. one less than the required majority, a celebration was organized at the headquarters of that party, attended by Tihomir Perić, and the formation of the government was announced with his help.
According to the election commission, 1.224 people voted for the Russian Party in Niš.
"The deciding factor was that I know the leader of the SNS in Niš, Dragoslav Pavlović, and I recognize the national potential to which I belong all my life." Peric said to journalists on June 3.
When the journalist insisted that he speak in Russian, Perić replied: "I'm a Serb, but why didn't you tell me to invite the Russian men and women who are on the list?" I'm not Russian, I'm a Russophile".
Portal Southern news he previously wrote that Tihomir Perić is a long-time city and municipal councilor and that for three decades he was a prominent member of Vojislav Šešelj's Serbian Radical Party, from which the Serbian Progressive Party emerged.
In March 2023, Perić stated that he had not been politically active for three years, but then he was appointed as a trustee of the Russian Party for Niš and the Nišava district.
The leader of the party says that he will not talk to the representatives of the opposition in Niš, because one of them, doctor Dragan Milić, "insulted and discriminated against Russians by saying that he did not meet any (Russians) in Niš", Nikolic said.
Stanković says that he is "not enthusiastic" about the coalition with the Serbian Progressive Party, because, as he says, "they have neglected agriculture in the country".
"We had to choose the lesser evil," he adds.
Na the electoral list of the Russian Party in Niš there were only eight names (the city parliament has 61 councilor seats), and the city election commission granted it the status of a national minority.
Of the eight names and surnames on the list of the Russian Party, seven are typically Serbian.
The electoral law in Serbia provides for special rules for announcing the electoral list of the national minority.
In order for the list to be announced, the Republican Electoral Commission should confirm that "the main goal of its submission is the representation and representation of the interests of the national minority, as well as the protection and improvement of the rights of members of the national minority, in accordance with international legal standards". they explain from the Center for Research, Transparency and Accountability (CRTA).
The law orders the election commission to reject the minority electoral list by decision if other circumstances are established that undoubtedly indicate an intention to circumvent the law.
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What is the policy of the Russian Party and who supports it?
The Russian party was founded in Šabac in 2013, with the aim, as they say, of strengthening cooperation with Russia.
On the party's website, it is written that they advocate Serbia's accession to the Eurasian Economic Union and BRICS, as well as Serbia's membership in the CSTO, which is the pro-Russian counterpart of the NATO alliance.
They oppose EU and NATO membership.
"By joining the Eurasian Union, we will save Kosovo, because then it becomes Russian Kosovo," the party president said in an interview five years ago.
In the past months, Kosovo was the backbone of their election campaign for the past parliamentary and local elections.
"Unlike other parties that only declaratively stand for the defense of Kosovo and Metohija [...], the Russian party stands for the return of Serbia to Kosovo and Metohija at any cost, and we will do that with the help of our brothers from the East, Russia Federation and the People's Republic of China", it is stated in the pre-election announcement of the Russian Party.
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The Russian party opposes the legalization of same-sex marriages, the organization of LGBT gatherings and the production of genetically modified products, and they also advocate anti-immigrant views.
This is not the first time that the Russian Party has won mandates in Niš - previously they had a smaller number of mandates in the city parliament, as well as in the municipalities of Niška Banja and Medijana.
Stanković claims that they financed this year's election campaign "from their own pockets".
"We only printed chemical and lighters, very modestly, but the voters still recognized us," he adds.
The party previously participated in the 2018 Belgrade elections, as well as the 2020 parliamentary elections, but then they did not pass the census.
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Russian influence in Nis
Although the Russian party is coming to power in the south of Serbia for the first time, Niš has been one of the centers of Russian activities in Serbia for more than a decade.
The Serbian-Russian Humanitarian Center was founded in that city in 2012, which officially trains members of the emergency response services, although their role is partially shrouded in secrecy.
The European Union has repeatedly demanded that Serbia "inform the EU about the activities of the center in Niš and its involvement in the emergency management system", among other things in the annual the report from November 2023.
Russia is still in 2014 requested from Serbia to grant the Center the status of a diplomatic representation, which was met with the displeasure of certain EU officials and America, and it has not been implemented to date.
In June 2022, Demostat is published that Serbia is allegedly planning to take the first steps towards the abolition of the Russian-Serbian humanitarian center, with the aim of harmonizing with European foreign policy towards Russia, but even that has not been implemented to date.
Who is Slobodan Nikolić?
The President of the Russian Party was born in Šabac in 1957, and is an economist by education.
He worked in the Statistical Office, was the director of the company "Zorka - plant protection", and also engaged in private business, according to the party's website.
He was also the vice president of the People's Peasant Party.
Nikolić is also at the head of the association Village threshold, which deals with marriage mediation of Serbian men and women from Russia, Belarus and Ukraine.
Seski prag is a branch of the "Vladimir Putin" Serbian-Russian Friendship Society, and Nikolić is the president of that organization as well.
"My mother was a teacher of Russian language and literature, so it is said that I received my love for Russian culture with my mother's milk," He said Nikolić in 2014 in an interview for the magazine "Ruski dom", published by the Russian Center for Science and Culture in Belgrade (RCNK).
RCNK is the representative office of the Federal Agency "Rossotrudnichestvo" in Serbia, which is under the auspices of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and deals with the "promotion of Russian education, science and culture". it is stated on their official website.
Since the beginning of the invasion of Ukraine, the Russian federal agency has been under the sanctions of the EU, USA and other countries, but not Serbia, which has not imposed any form of sanctions against Russia.
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