The U.S. Department of State (DOS) stated that any claim that the United States supports anti-government protests in Serbia “is false.”
“It doesn’t surprise us that Russia, on the contrary, has instrumentalized the protests to pursue its agenda in Serbia, as it does worldwide,” the DOS told Radio Free Europe on August 17.
The DOS was responding to Radio Free Europe’s request for comment on accusations made by authorities in Serbia and Russia, who have blamed Western states—without naming any specific ones—for inciting protests that were recently organized by environmental activists seeking to halt lithium mining.
Thousands of people participated in protests organized against the Government’s plans to extract lithium deposits in one of the largest mines in Europe for this material, which is crucial for the production of batteries for electric vehicles.
Moscow has accused the West of being behind the protests, while Serbian Deputy Prime Minister Aleksandar Vulin has thanked Russian security agencies for “warning Serbian leadership about preparations for mass unrest and an attempted coup.”
The DOS said that the U.S. stance on Vulin is “well known.”
In 2023, Vulin was placed on the U.S. sanctions list due to his close ties with the Kremlin.
In its response to Radio Free Europe, the U.S. Department of State said that “peaceful protests and the right of citizens to protest and express themselves freely are an important part of democracy.”
During the protests, a demand was made to halt the Rio Tinto lithium extraction project in Jadar, western Serbia, as protesters expressed concerns that it could cause soil and water pollution near the mine.
In 2022, the Serbian Government rejected this project after mass protests and concerns about its environmental impact.
However, the Government revived this plan in July, 16 years after it was initially introduced, just days after the Serbian Constitutional Court ruled that the Government had acted unconstitutionally when it revoked permits for the Rio Tinto mine.
