Through the Balkans as a "testing ground", Russia is trying to destabilize and divide Europe with a hybrid war, in which Serbia plays one of the key roles, and the central point of the export of autocratic politics to that region is the government of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, the Luxembourg daily Tageblat writes today.
The paper writes that these are the main conclusions of a new study by the German Friedrich Naumann Foundation, "Russia, a roadblock for autocrats - how the Kremlin is destabilizing Europe".
The newspaper reports that in Serbia, as a candidate for membership in the European Union, "Moscow spokesmen" occupy important positions, and as an example it cites the Deputy Prime Minister Aleksandar Vulin and his recent statement that Germany dreams of revenge for the defeat in the Second World War and that they are the first victims. such policies were the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia.
True, not all Serbian officials attack Germany with such aggressive Kremlin narratives, which is understandable because Germany is the largest foreign investor in Serbia, the daily writes.
However, the anti-Western subtext in the statements of the ruling politicians and media close to the government in Serbia is not a coincidence, reports Tageblat's assessment from the analysis.
The paper states that the author of the study and the long-term head of the correspondence of the German agency dpa in Belgrade, Tomas Braj, believes that Southeast Europe is for Moscow an "experimental field for trying out new forms of propaganda."
"As the most important intersection of the region and the anchor point of Russian propaganda, Serbia plays a key role in this," Braj said, adding that the media funded by the Kremlin and broadcasting in Serbian from Belgrade, such as Sputnik and RT, also influence the media image in the surrounding countries. .
And Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić is also spreading Russian narratives, the newspaper reported the assessment of lawyer Cedomir Stojković from his analysis of Vučić's interview last year for the right-wing Swiss newspaper Veltvohe.
"The Kremlin knows how to influence the region in its own interest not only through a media campaign and a campaign through TikTok, but also through the 'axis of autocrats,'" the paper reports an assessment from a study by the liberal Friedrich Naumann Foundation, which is part of the European Movement network in Germany.
The authors of the study identified Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán as a central point and link in this, whose "demolition of democracy" became "a model and blueprint for aspiring students like Vučić, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik or for VMRO-DPMNE Prime Minister of North Macedonia Hristijan Mickoski," Tageblat writes.
Budapest, as stated, is not only the leader of "illiberal democracy", but also with large investments in real estate, football clubs and in the media sector in neighboring countries, it is trying to expand its networks and influence in Southeast Europe. Even at a time when billions of euros of EU aid have been blocked and when it is borrowing more and more from China, Hungary "acts as a generous creditor in the Balkans".
Tageblat writes that in its export of autocracy, Hungary does not forget the "stumbling like-minded people".
The newspaper reminds that it was Hungarian diplomats in Budapest who smuggled the former Prime Minister of North Macedonia, Nikola Gruevski, who thus escaped the prison he was sentenced to for corruption.
Gruevski enjoys the status of a political refugee in Hungary, as does populist Party of Law and Justice (PiS) politician Marcin Romanovski, who recently escaped from Poland, for whom an arrest warrant has been issued, the daily reminds.
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