Europe | Changing priorities

The war is forcing Russia’s Balkan friends to recalibrate

Even Serbia is uneasy about Vladimir Putin’s aggression

A man holds a cutout of Russian President Vladimir Putin during the "Immortal Regiment" march in Belgrade on May 9, 2022. - About 200 people took part in the march of the "Immortal Regiment" organized in Belgrade by the Russian Embassy to mark the Soviet victory over the Nazis in 1945. The participants marched in silence holding the portraits of the young people dead in the battlefields. (Photo by Andrej ISAKOVIC / AFP) (Photo by ANDREJ ISAKOVIC/AFP via Getty Images)
|BELGRADE

Sounding very sad, Aleksandar Vucic, Serbia’s president, says he has talked to Vladimir Putin but not tried to influence him over the war in Ukraine. “I am a small guy…I have to take care of small issues for my small country.” The war has sent shock waves through the Balkans, but for the leaders of the generally pro-Russian Serbs, it has elevated the political art of ducking and weaving to new heights.

This article appeared in the Europe section of the print edition under the headline “Changing friends”

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