A group from Serbia was causing riots in France and Germany on the orders of the Russian intelligence service, as confirmed by Serbian court rulings that Radio Free Europe (RFE) has had access to.
Although the authorities in Belgrade have not yet named the Russian service as the organizer of a series of racist actions in Paris and Berlin, in which Serbian citizens participated in the spring and summer of 2025, court documents show this.
RFE/RL has received the verdicts of the Higher Court in Smederevo against three Serbian citizens convicted of espionage and racial discrimination.
Along with eight other suspects from Serbia, they were arrested at the end of September 2025.
Almost four months later, in late December 2025, the three entered into plea agreements and received sentences ranging from six months to a year and a half of house arrest.
The other eight suspects are not in custody.
The verdicts, provided to RFE/RL, state that the group's actions were aimed at the Jewish and Muslim religious communities, in order to increase tensions in Germany and France.
Orders, instructions and money for actions were given to the group by "the intelligence structures of the Russian Federation".
There are, however, no further details - who the members of the Russian intelligence service who organized this group are.
The Serbian Ministries of Interior and Foreign Affairs, the Security and Information Agency, and the Russian Embassy in Belgrade had not responded to questions about the activities of the Russian intelligence service in Serbia by the time of publication of the text.
Before the arrests and court proceedings in Serbia, these cases were investigated by French and German authorities.
"We probably reached the verdicts because evidence was presented that the Serbian authorities could not ignore," Predrag Petrović from the non-governmental Belgrade Center for Security Policy told RFE/RL.
He states that Russia is choosing Serbia for recruitment because of the traditional favoritism and pro-Russian attitudes of the population, which the government led by the Serbian Progressive Party "further strengthens and establishes."
"So, we have an environment that is very suitable for that kind of action, and on the other hand, we have very good relations between the authorities in Serbia and Russia," he adds.
What do the verdicts reveal?
The verdicts describe four racist actions in France and Germany.
The group is, among other things, responsible for pouring green paint on the Holocaust Museum and three synagogues in Paris, as well as leaving pig heads in front of nine mosques in that city.
In the center of Berlin, near the memorial complex dedicated to murdered Jews, plastic skeletons were being placed.
The goal, as stated in the verdicts, was to "incite religious and national intolerance", especially between the Jewish and Muslim communities, and to "destabilize the situation" in Germany and France.
In addition to paying for travel expenses – vehicle rental, bus and plane tickets, and hotel accommodation – the group members were promised that they would receive money for each "job" they completed – five hundred, one thousand, or one and a half thousand euros.
The group, as described, was organized from April to September 2025.
Predrag Petrović points out for RFE/RL that the goal of Russian services was to cause instability in Europe, in order to "reduce pressure and support for Ukraine because Russia is pretty much stuck on the Ukrainian battlefield."
Tensions between the EU and Russia have been ongoing since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and Western sanctions on the Kremlin.
From Velika Plana to Paris and Berlin
Velika Plana, with a population of around 15.000, was the place where the Russian service recruited Serbian citizens in 2025 to cause unrest in Germany and France.
All three men convicted of espionage and racial discrimination live in this small town in central Serbia, about ninety kilometers from Belgrade.
They were labeled as "members of a group" that aided the work of a foreign intelligence service and incited hatred, discrimination and violence in Paris and Berlin.
The verdicts, however, did not specify exactly how many members this group had.
All the names of the other suspects were hidden in the documents provided to Radio Free Europe.
The group, as stated in the verdicts, was organized by a Serbian citizen, whose name is also withheld.
"An unidentified person nicknamed Hunter" is also mentioned with him as the organizer.
There are no details about "Hunter" in the documents of the Higher Court in Smederevo.
The two organizers were reportedly receiving instructions from Russian intelligence.
The first action was organized in April 2025, when members of the group headed to Paris.
Then, according to one of the verdicts, they "pasted stickers with genocidal content" directed against Armenians and Muslims.
Between 600 and 700 stickers, with a flower as a symbol and the inscription "I remember and demand" in English and Armenian, were pasted around Paris - including around the Arc de Triomphe and in the 18th arrondissement (district), which is home to a significant number of Muslims.
The action was carried out on April 24, the day of commemoration of the suffering of the Armenian people, "with the aim of provoking religious and national intolerance and destabilizing the situation in Paris and France."
After the work was done, as stated in the verdict, they had to take photographs of the places where the stickers were placed. For this, they were promised 500 euros.
Champions League final and green paint on the Holocaust Museum
In May 2025, Paris hosted the Champions League final in football.
Ahead of the match between Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) and Inter Milan, which was played on May 31st, a group from Serbia is arriving in the French capital - by rented car and regular flight.
Their goal was to destabilize "ethnic and religious relations" in France.
As stated in the ruling, the date of the action was chosen for the Champions League final because "a large number of people were expected on the streets" in Paris.
The defendants divided into two groups and used green paint to cross out inscriptions, smear and spray paint objects – synagogues, Jewish restaurants and the Holocaust Museum.
They were promised a salary of one thousand euros for the work they did.
Plastic skeletons at the Brandenburg Gate
In July 2025, members of the group, on the orders of Russian services, headed to Germany.
In front of the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, near the memorial complex dedicated to the murdered Jews of Europe, on July 31, they placed five plastic skeletons cast in concrete, in plastic buckets – the verdict describes.
Each of the skeletons had a caption in German, "I'm still waiting for my pension. Thank you, Merc," referring to German Chancellor Friedrich Merz.
This was done to "destabilize ethnic and political conditions" in Germany, one of the verdicts describes.
The court document also describes in detail the car in which the defendants arrived in Germany, how they bought plastic buckets, sprays, cement, poles and other materials in Berlin, and that they bought the plastic skeletons in Munich.
In Berlin, they reportedly rented a refrigerated truck in which they prepared concrete in buckets.
One of the group members watched the skeleton being placed in the early morning hours from the car.
They had to send photographs as proof of their actions. They were promised a profit of one thousand euros.
Pig heads in front of mosques in Paris
In September 2025, several members of the group, on the orders of Russian intelligence structures, go to Paris.
They placed severed pig heads in front of nine mosques and wrote graffiti reading "September 10th", ahead of mass protests.
The goal, once again, was to incite racial and religious intolerance.
On September 10, large protests were held in Paris and other cities in France against budget cuts and government austerity measures, under the slogan "let's block everything."
The group carried out the action on September 9, after which it returned to Serbia.
With travel and accommodation expenses covered, they were promised 1.500 euros.
Who is "Hunter"?
The verdicts describe which actions in Germany and France each of the convicted persons participated in as a member of the group.
The identities of all three convicted persons were concealed in the verdicts provided to RFE/RL.
However, the documents provide some details about them.
In addition to all three being from Velika Plana, what they have in common is that none of them have previously been convicted.
One is unemployed, the other worked in a health center, and the third, a waiter by profession, was employed, but it is not stated where.
None of them have real estate in their name.
RFE/RL learned the initials of the convicted based on an earlier response from the Higher Court in Smederevo, which confirmed that they had entered into plea agreements at the end of December 2025.
AS reached an agreement with the Higher Court in Smederevo on December 22, 2025. He was sentenced to a year and a half of house arrest.
The time spent in detention, from September 28th until the verdict was pronounced and the start of serving his sentence, was also included in his sentence.
On the same day, December 22, an agreement was reached with FP, who was sentenced to one year of house arrest.
A few days later, on December 24, the High Court also reached an agreement with the defendant N.Ć, who received a sentence of six months of house arrest.
In addition to the three of them, at the end of September 2025, eight more suspects were arrested in the territory of Smederevo, in a joint operation by the police and the Security and Information Agency.
They are not behind bars today. Some are free, and some are under house arrest.
A statement from the Ministry of Interior from September 2025 stated that the group, responsible for causing incidents in Germany and France, had 14 members and that one was on the run.
And who the person nicknamed "Hunter" was, who organized the group, is not known from the High Court rulings.
There are no details on how the group was recruited by Russian services, nor how many Russian intelligence officers were involved.
Although Serbian officials have not yet named the Russian service as the organizer, their role has been established by French and German investigators.
Part of a group from Serbia, which participated in racist actions, was detained in France at the end of May, French media reported at the time.
They were identified thanks to surveillance camera footage and phone records.
"This is a very inconvenient fact for the authorities in Serbia. They had to do something, first to arrest these people, and now to pass a verdict. Given that Moscow has supported the Serbian authorities, it is not in their interest now to boast about it, both for the sake of the Kremlin, but also for the sake of their electorate, which is mostly anti-Western and pro-Russian," Predrag Petrović points out.
Investigation into Russian paramilitary camps in Serbia
Serbia is one of the few European countries that has not imposed sanctions on Russia for its invasion of Ukraine.
Official contacts have not been interrupted even four years after the war, despite calls from the European Union and Washington for Belgrade to distance itself from Moscow.
Predrag Petrović also recalls the intelligence cooperation between the two countries in the fight against the so-called "colored revolutions", which is the term used by the Kremlin to describe the overthrow of authoritarian regimes in former Soviet republics.
Faced with mass protests in Serbia since November 2024, with thousands of demonstrators accusing the government of corruption, President Aleksandar Vučić has claimed that an attempt at a "color revolution" is underway.
"The authorities in Russia have practically indebted the Serbian authorities with those reports that a 'colored revolution' is being prepared in Serbia. All of this indicates that Serbia is a suitable milieu and springboard for the activities of Russian services in the Western Balkans, but also in Europe," he adds.
Russia and Serbia have been linked in another investigation, this time in Moldova.
Moldovan police released a video in September 2025, claiming it showed "military camps in Serbia organized by the Russian secret service."
More than 70 people were detained in Moldova as part of the investigation, most of whom are suspected of having been trained in Serbia.
They are charged with preparing mass riots and destabilizing Moldova ahead of the parliamentary elections held in that country on September 28th.
In the elections, the pro-European ruling party won a majority and convincingly defeated the pro-Russian bloc, and the voting took place without major incidents.
Russia has denied interfering in the election process, while Moldova accuses it of hybrid warfare, including a disinformation campaign and illegal financing of pro-Russian parties.
Two days before the vote in Moldova, Serbia detained two people for organizing combat-tactical training for clashes with Moldovan police in the event of unrest during election day.
According to Serbian police, the training was organized in a catering facility near Loznica in western Serbia, and between 150 and 170 citizens of Moldova and Romania underwent the training.
"This training took place for a long period of time without interruption, and we only learned about it after the authorities in Serbia were presented with irrefutable evidence of the existence of this paramilitary camp," says Predrag Petrović from the Belgrade Center for Security Policy.
The case is still under investigation in Serbia. The two suspects are not in custody.
Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić stated in the months following the arrests that Serbian authorities had established that three Russian citizens were in the camp.
He did not, however, link Russian intelligence to the camp. Russia is not officially mentioned in statements from the Serbian police and prosecutor's office.
The European Parliament, in a report from 2023, assessed that Russia was using its influence in Serbia to try to destabilize and interfere in the affairs of neighboring sovereign states.
Previously, in 2019, the US State Department characterized Serbia, a candidate for membership in the European Union, as the country with the "most permeable environment" for Russian influence in the Western Balkans.
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