INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
independent Serbian and Russian analysts told The Moscow Times.Peter Nikitin, an anti-Kremlin activist who has organized protests against
Moscow's invasion of Ukraine, was barred entry when returning to Serbia on Thursday, with his lawyer saying a deportation order was issued
finally allowed through passport control on Friday evening."They let me go! Now we will celebrate," Nikitin told The Moscow Times via voice
Nikitin's case shows that anti-war Russians can no longer feel at ease in Serbia
Unfortunately, this is so and will be so in the future under the current authorities in Belgrade and Moscow," Srecko Djuki?, the former
Serbian Ambassador to Belarus, told The Moscow Times."Nothing positive can be expected for the active opponents of the war in Ukraine in the
Republic of Serbia," Djukic added.The incident shows that the Serbian leadership and security services may well take legal action at the
senior fellow with the Center for European Policy Analysis and a researcher of the Russian secret services.Nikitin holds Russian and Dutch
citizenship in addition to his permanent Serbian residence permit
His two daughters were born in Serbia and hold Serbian passports.However, after landing in Belgrade after a trip to Portugal, he was kept at
outside the passport control checkpoint
appealed the entry ban with the Serbian authorities."This is a senseless ban
the Kremlin and a supporter of jailed opposition politician Alexei Navalny.Nikitin has organized many demonstrations in Serbia in support of
Navalny and other Russian political prisoners
authorities.His brief entry ban is not the first time that Serbian intelligence has shown an interest in Russian opposition activists and
politicians.In December 2021, it was revealed that the BIA was monitoring and wiretapping Russian opposition leaders who were holding a
seminar for Russian municipal deputies in Belgrade.This came to light after Serbia's interior minister brought the recordings of the
conversations to Moscow and handed them over to Nikolai Patrushev, the head of Russia's Security Council and President Vladimir Putin's
the activism that Peter is involved in," she said
"Since our activism is in no way directed against Serbian domestic politics, suspicions arose that this story could not have happened
organized rallies in his support on Thursday and Friday."It was very important for us that Serbia remain a democratic country and not become
a branch of repressive Russia," she said.When Nikitin arrived at passport control in Belgrade, "my passport was taken away for three hours
When it was returned, I was informally told that I had been banned from entering by [the BIA]," he told The Moscow Times.He said he believed
services," retired Serbian diplomat Djuki? said.Soldatov confirmed that the Russian and Serbian security forces have built and maintained a
good relationship with each other."Many officers of the Russian security services who were kicked out of Europe have been redeployed to
And the local counterintelligence is not very nervous about this," he said.Media reports have said that up to 300,000 Russians have arrived
Serbian service reported in May
There are almost 2,000 companies registered by Russians in the country, and another 5,000 people are registered as individual entrepreneurs
to the economy plays into the hands of the Serbian authorities
As a result, those who are not publicly involved in political and activist work are unlikely to attract the interest of Serbian security
