Putin’s regime in Moscow couldn’t save their friend Bashar al-Assad.
All they did was enable his escape from his country to Russia.
From this event, U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III warned the few remaining countries linked to Russia that Putin cannot save them.
But who are these countries?
In the geopolitical situation created after Russia’s aggressive attack on Ukraine, many countries united and condemned it, also imposing sanctions on the Kremlin.
However, there are several countries like Syria, which was led by the dictator Bashar al-Assad, that did not do this; instead, they continued and even increased cooperation with Russia.
Among them is a small Balkan country, Serbia.
The country led by Aleksandar Vučić, against whom protests by tens of thousands of people have erupted, accusing him of connections to crime, has only increased cooperation with the aggressor nation.
Vučić himself compared himself to the bloody dictator Bashar al-Assad, saying he “would not flee like Assad.”
Cooperation has grown especially in military and intelligence aspects:
- Serbia accepted various types of weapons from Russia, including the anti-drone system “Repellent,” despite international sanctions against Russia.
- Serbia continued the military-technical cooperation that began in 2019.
- Signed an agreement for consultation with Russia on foreign policy matters.
- Cooperation between intelligence services continued to grow, to the extent that Serbian leadership thanked Russian security services for their help and cooperation. There are even regular and public visits between officials of the two countries, highlighting frequent visits by Deputy Prime Minister and former Serbian intelligence chief Aleksandar Vulin to Russia.
In Serbia, the so-called “Serbian-Russian Humanitarian Center” continues to operate in the city of Niš, known as a Russian espionage center.
Serbia continued to copy Russia’s hybrid warfare in aspects like: “Violent Campaigns“, “Election Interference“, and “Attacks on Critical Infrastructure“, leading to terrorist attacks against neighboring countries and assaults on NATO soldiers, part of KFOR.
- Serbia and Russia signed agreements for gas supply and in the health sector.
- Serbia has served as a “loophole” for sanctions by not stopping flights with Russia and allowing evasion of sanctions and travel in Europe.
In the beginning of 2025 US imposed sanctions on Serbia’s Russian-owned petrol industry.
Serbia’s Vučić said he will talk with Putin after the US targeted Serbia’s main oil and gas company.
Besides Serbia, there are other countries that, in one form or another, have not sanctioned or have supported Russia, such as North Korea, Iran, China, Nicaragua, Hungary, etc.
