Ukrainian oligarch and former lawmaker Vadym Novynskyi, who is wanted in his home country on suspicion of high treason, has obtained Serbian citizenship.
The decision granting citizenship to Novynskyi, published on Friday in the Official Gazette, was signed a day earlier by Serbian Prime Minister Đuro Macut.
In the decision, which bypasses regular procedures, the Serbian government cites a legal provision under which a foreign national may obtain Serbian citizenship through an expedited procedure if this is deemed to be in the “interest” of the state.
By the time of publication, the Serbian government had not responded to questions from Radio Free Europe’s Balkan Service about why Novynskyi was granted citizenship and how this serves Serbia’s interests.
The Serbian Ministry of Internal Affairs also did not respond to the questions.
Novynskyi has thus joined hundreds of foreign nationals to whom the Serbian authorities, led by Aleksandar Vučić’s Serbian Progressive Party, have granted Serbian passports through an expedited procedure.
Since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, hundreds of Russian citizens have also obtained Serbian citizenship in this way, while Radio Free Europe previously found that many of them have close ties to Vladimir Putin’s regime.
Who is Vadym Novynskyi?
Novynskyi is a former Ukrainian lawmaker and businessman who, according to Radio Free Europe’s Ukrainian Service, is wanted on suspicion of high treason and has been described as a “custodian of the Russian Orthodox Church in Ukraine.”
He left Ukraine immediately after the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion of the country in February 2022 and subsequently settled in Croatia, where he purchased a property of more than 1,400 square meters on a plot of more than 2.5 hectares, featuring vineyards and orchards.
In a response from the businessman’s lawyer at a Spanish law firm, Novynskyi is described as “a staunch supporter of Ukraine” and as someone who “has long been under sanctions imposed by the Russian Federation, which in itself rules out any credible claim regarding his alleged ties to Russian structures.”
The lawyer’s letter provided no evidence that Novynskyi is under sanctions imposed by Moscow. In fact, it was previously reported that Russia’s sanctions against him were lifted in 2020 and that no new sanctions had been imposed. The lawyer’s response also stated that “campaigns aimed at discrediting, demonizing and criminalizing Mr. Novynskyi are unacceptable.”
In March of this year, after a prolonged period of silence, Novynskyi gave an interview to Germany’s Compact.TV, which was published under the headline “This Oligarch Wants to Bring Down Zelensky!” and described him as “something like Ukraine’s Elon Musk: an entrepreneur, politician and one of the richest people in the country. Now he is being pursued by President Zelensky—because he opposes his course in the war.”
In the interview, the businessman criticized Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and expressed his views on the war with Russia, the Russian language, the Minsk Agreements, sanctions against him, and the ban on the Ukrainian Orthodox Church—which, alongside the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, is one of the largest churches in the country and is considered close to Moscow and the Russian Orthodox Church.
“The most important thing for Ukraine’s security is friendly relations with Russia. Everything else is nonsense. If Ukraine has good-neighborly, friendly and strategic relations with Russia, we will always have security,” Novynskyi said in the interview.
He claims that he was forced to leave Ukraine because of warnings that criminal proceedings would be brought against him.
According to data from Ukrainska Pravda, Novynskyi left Ukraine shortly before the start of the full-scale invasion—on February 10, 2022, heading to Germany. According to data from leaked Russian flight databases, on February 21, 2022, he flew from Russia to Estonia.
According to Radio Free Europe’s Ukrainian Service, he left Ukraine in June 2022 and has not returned since.
In July of that year, he announced that he was resigning his parliamentary mandate and planned to devote himself to rebuilding destroyed churches. In December of the same year, Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council imposed sanctions on him.
Several months later, in the spring of 2023, RFE/RL journalists filmed Novynskyi attending a service at the Russian Orthodox Church in Zurich. In response to questions from journalists, the former lawmaker said he was in Switzerland while traveling from Germany.
Later, in the summer of 2023, he was filmed with his family at one of the tourist resorts on Croatia’s Adriatic coast. He was subsequently filmed at the Bellevue Hotel in Opatija, on the Istrian Peninsula. In the Croatian registry, journalists found information about a residence he had declared in Split, at the Bel Etage complex, which is co-owned, among others, by Russian citizens.
Journalists from RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service found a property belonging to Novynskyi in Croatia’s third-largest city, Samobor, near Zagreb. According to data from Croatia’s Land Registry and Cadastre Information System, he became the owner of a luxury property there in 2025.
The former Ukrainian lawmaker’s property consists of two plots covering nearly 2.5 hectares, with vineyards and orchards, as well as a villa measuring more than 1,400 square meters. The residential complex also includes a 265-square-meter residential building, outbuildings and a 200-square-meter wine cellar.
The villa also has a swimming pool, while the grounds include a golf course. In an advertisement for the sale of the residence, it was described as “one of the most beautiful residential properties in Croatia.” The Croatian newspaper Jutarnji list reported that Novynskyi purchased the property for €10.5 million from local businessman Tomislav Horvatinčić.
“I have always supported peace and the restoration of relations with Russia. Even after the war began, I supported peace, preserving the lives of Ukrainians and preserving Ukrainian statehood,” Novynskyi said in the recent interview.
RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service has found that a company belonging to Novynskyi’s brother in Crimea, which is under Russian occupation, “works” for the Russian military and supports aggression against Ukraine.
The company Balaklavska Rudarska Uprava, which was previously part of Novynskyi’s Smart-Holding group of companies and was transferred to his brother in 2014, continues to extract minerals and pays hundreds of millions of rubles in taxes to the Russian budget. In addition, the company and its employees assist and support the Russian military during the invasion of Ukraine—public sources report the repair of military equipment and participation in volunteer projects supporting Russian soldiers.
Who Are Serbia’s New Citizens?
A previous RFE/RL analysis shows that since the beginning of the war, more than 300 Russian citizens have obtained Serbian citizenship by decision of the Serbian government.
This is not the final number, as citizenship is also granted by the Ministry of Internal Affairs through the regular procedure, provided certain conditions are met.
The Serbian Ministry of Internal Affairs has not responded to RFE/RL’s questions about how many Russian citizens have obtained Serbian citizenship since 2022.
RFE/RL previously found that among the new holders of Serbian passports were also Russian public figures, politicians and businesspeople who are on Western countries’ “blacklists” because of their support for the war.
For this reason, official Belgrade is under scrutiny from the European Union (EU).
Brussels has warned that a Serbian passport allows Russian citizens to enter the EU without a visa, which poses a potential security risk.
