How did the conference in Serbia become part of Russia's disinformation campaign?
The Voicer
On 26 May in Belgrade started an international conference ‘Genocide of Slavic Peoples in the Twentieth Century’ with the participation of Serbian, Russian and Belarusian diplomats. This event is not covered at all in the international and Ukrainian media, but it is quite important, as it is part of systematic Russian propaganda and promotes the interests of Russia in Serbia and beyond.
Today, we propose to put this seemingly ordinary conference under a microscope and understand how Russian narratives are trickling down to other countries, and what we should do about it.
Images from the conference
Where can I find out about the conference?
There is very little information about the conference on the Internet. The results are only in Serbian, which clearly shows the main target audience of the event.
The first lines of the results are occupied by the pages of the Russian Embassy in Serbia. A post about the conference was also posted in Telegram, X, and even on Instagram.
Everything was dubbed in Russian and Serbian.
The event was also covered by several media outlets: RT Balkan and Sputnik Србија. Both media services, as you might have guessed, are Russian.
RT Balkan is the Serbian arm of the international media network RT, formerly known as Russia Today. It is fully financed and managed by Russia. 
Sputnik is a division of the Sputnik international agency, which is part of the Russian state media holding «Rossiya Segodnya». To leave no doubt about the quality and political orientation of their materials, we note that the editor-in-chief of Sputnik is Margarita Simonyan.
Other websites that mention the conference in one way or another refer to posts from the Russian embassy or one of these media outlets. Thus, two fundamental points can be seen: in general, only Russia is the source of information about this event, and it does so through Serbian media and in Serbian, so we can assume that Serbia is the main target of this campaign.
Conference agenda
If you look at the account of the Russian Embassy in Serbia, you will see familiar phrases. They talk about «the bloody crimes of Western countries in the twentieth century» and «he strength of historical and spiritual ties between Serbia and Russia». They did not forget about the «widespread Russophobia and the ban on alternative sources of information», obviously referring to Russian propaganda sources. The presence of Serbian President Vucic at the 9 May victory parade is also mentioned. The guests of the conference are also mentioned, including the ambassadors of Russia and Belarus to Serbia.
However, the embassy did not tell us the most interesting things, so let's move on to the Russian media. The Serbian branch of RT writes that the conference showed how Ukraine is a vivid example of how ‘historical revisionism opens the door to a new fascism’. It also mentions how Kyiv ‘demolishes monuments to war heroes and glorifies Nazi leader Stepan Bandera and his followers’. This is a classic Russian narrative that is being publicly promoted in Europe.
Who pays for everything?
To understand how this could happen, it is worth looking at who is the organiser of this event.
The conference was organised by the Institute for Political Studies in cooperation with the Centre for Social and Informational Cooperation ‘Europe’ and the Foundation for Support and Protection of the Rights of Compatriots Living Abroad.
All three of these organisations, as you might guess, are directly or indirectly linked to Russia.
For example, the Institute for Political Studies maintains scientific and cultural ties with Russian organisations. In 2014, it signed a cooperation agreement with the Institute of Philosophy of the Russian Academy of Sciences. A year ago, it held a conference entitled «Rethinking Russia in the 21st Century», the bias of which can be seen even in its title.
The Centre for Public and Information Cooperation «Europe» has been caught many times promoting pro-Russian narratives in the Western Balkans region. And the Foundation for Support and Protection of the Rights of Compatriots is a Russian organisation established at the initiative of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Rossotrudnichestvo. Everything is clear with it.
That is, we are looking at a conference that was organised, advertised and held by Russia. And he who pays the piper calls the tune.
Cultural events as an element of Russian soft power
Russia systematically uses such conferences as an instrument of soft power to promote its geopolitical interests abroad. The conference in Belgrade is a vivid example of an information special operation aimed at shaping a pro-Russian discourse among the Serbian audience. Under the guise of «historical memory», Russia is trying to legitimise its political messages and justify its current aggressive policy.
Through such events, the Kremlin seeks to consolidate the image of Russia as a ‘victim’ and a ‘fighter against fascism’, which makes it possible to manipulate history by comparing Ukraine to Nazi Germany.
Countries like Serbia are very susceptible to this kind of manipulation. Some studies show that the concentration of disinformation in Serbia is 6.3 times higher than the average for the European Union.
This should not be surprising. The country has not imposed sanctions against Russia and allows Russian media to operate freely on its territory.
Also, Serbia is the only country in the Western Balkans where the Russian RT, which we mentioned today, operates. Interestingly, the Serbian branch was founded in November 2022, eight months after the start of the war in Ukraine.
How can we fight this?
Russian propaganda is reaching out towards too many other countries, and something needs to be done about it. The most effective way would be to ban Russian propaganda materials and media. This is exactly what most European countries have done. And although this has not eradicated Russian disinformation, it has made it much more difficult to promote it.
But Serbia's problem lies in its leadership. The Serbian authorities are not ready to spoil relations with Russia, so they need to look for other ways to solve the problem.
And mathematics can help here. For every event with Russian narratives, there should be another with pro-Ukrainian or pro-European ones. With limited resources and possible obstacles from the Serbian authorities, it is difficult to hold offline events. However, there is an opportunity to influence and convey an alternative opinion through social media, including in Serbian.
We should also not forget about the possibility of working with Serbian influencers, journalists and cultural figures who are ready to spread the truth or at least question Russian narratives.
In addition, Russia creates a lot of massive but low-quality content. The alternative is to do less, but with more depth and accuracy. This could include high-quality documentary videos, podcasts, or interviews with eyewitnesses, including Serbian volunteers serving in the Ukrainian armed forces.
In countries such as Serbia, the Russian propaganda machine is extremely strong, but this does not mean that we should not fight it. Nowadays, even a cultural conference can become an element of information warfare, and we should carefully study such events. Especially when they are reported on the official pages of the Russian embassy.