Author: Asoc. Prof. Dr. Arben Fetoshi – Director at Institute for Hybrid Warfare Studies “OCTOPUS” and professor at University of Pristina “Hasan Prishtina”
Why the “Historical Society” Outlines Serbia’s Neo-Soviet Alignment
The establishment of the Russian Historical Society branch in Belgrade represents the clearest indicator of the hegemonic superstructure of “Slavic brotherhood,” marking one of the most serious threats to security and the democratic order. The “educational” center of expansionist policy from the Tsarist era (1866), revived by Vladimir Putin in 2012 to command the Russian “truth” through his most sophisticated instrument, the Director of the Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), Sergey Naryshkin, has dispelled the illusion of Serbia’s “European integration,” subordinating it completely to Russia’s strategic noose.
The head of the Belgrade branch, Aleksandar Vulin, former Minister of the Interior and former Director of Serbia’s Security and Intelligence Agency (BIA), sanctioned by the United States for corruption and ties to the Kremlin, revealed the true nature of this “society” during its Founding Assembly in Belgrade, describing it as “a meeting point for all those who see Serbia as a state that will fight without any reservation for the peaceful creation of the Serbian world, and as a true ally of Russia and China.”
The Strategy Disguised as “Defense”
In just four days (October 24–27), three interconnected events exposed three levels of a disguised strategy: Aleksandar Vučić amplified the narrative of “Serbia toward the EU, but without recognizing Kosovo”; Aleksandar Vulin institutionalized Serbia’s strategic “submission” to Russia through the so-called “historical” society; and Sergey Lavrov proposed a new Euro-Asian security model, “guaranteeing” that Russia had never intended, nor intends, to attack any NATO or EU member state.
This Lavrov–Vučić–Vulin triad reformulated the stance toward the Euro-Atlantic community (including the Western Balkans) under a blunt alternative: either allow the realization of Russian-Serbian interests in Europe, or face war. A disguised strategy forming the foundation for Aleksandr Dugin’s geopolitical concept of Neo-Eurasianism.
If the “Russian-Serbian Humanitarian Center” in Niš (2012) represented the first step toward Serbia’s Putinization, the establishment of the “Historical Society” marks its most sophisticated extension, aimed at embodying a fabricated “truth” through the politics of memory. A covert espionage center masked as a humanitarian mission, having already prepared its operational infrastructure through recruitment, training, and networking, has now been reinforced with an “academic” hub of Serbian-Russian linkage, allegedly to “defend” against NATO, democracy, and the West, the so-called “enemies” of their “worlds” (the Russian World and the Serbian World).
Within this strategy, the “Historical Society,” directed by Putin’s “intelligent instruments”, Naryshkin and Vulin, will serve as a platform for:
- rewriting history according to narratives portraying NATO as the “aggressor” and Serbia as the “victim”;
- spreading cultural and diplomatic propaganda under the guise of “academic cooperation”; and
- preparing the ground for infiltration into educational and media institutions.
Where Russian influence in Serbia once flowed primarily through energy, media, and politics, it is now being institutionalized through “historiography” and collective memory, with plans already announced to expand via an association of Russian-Serbian universities.
Meanwhile, the state-driven nature of the “Historical Society” in Belgrade, beyond Aleksandar Vulin as the “architect” of the Serbian World project and, not coincidentally, appointed senator for Republika Srpska, is confirmed by the broad political and institutional participation of figures such as Interior Minister Ivica Dačić, Deputy Speaker of Parliament Nevada Đurić, Patriarch Porfirije of the Serbian Orthodox Church, among others.
Tactically Playing “Neutrality”
Within the process of arming Serbia as the western anchor of Putin’s Euro-Asian front, Aleksandar Vučić continues to represent a façade of “neutrality,” designed to extract benefits from the EU accession process. By repeatedly claiming that he “will never recognize Kosovo” while presenting Serbia as ready for EU membership, he in fact implements the Kremlin’s insidious instrument to keep Serbia tied to Brussels, framing the country as a gateway for Moscow’s strategic interests.
Otherwise, Serbia’s military buildup and diversification of suppliers (French Rafale jets, Russian systems, and Chinese FK-3/HQ-22 air-defense weapons) makes no sense: Vučić tactically uses France to “balance” the West. Militarization is not “neutrality,” nor are his visits to Moscow and Beijing, his commitment to the “Serbian World,” or his refusal to join other candidate states in sanctioning Russia.
On the contrary, the reality shows an ever more overt engagement in revisionist policy through the synchronization of hybrid warfare—combining propaganda, religion, diplomacy, and controlled military actions in Kosovo and the region. Vučić’s statements about a “change in geopolitical circumstances” confirm objectives of destabilization and the dismantling of the current security infrastructure as a precondition for realizing the “Serbian World.”
In this context, the Russian Historical Society in Serbia is a project that constructs the ideological infrastructure for the final phase of the Russian-Serbian confrontation with the West.
The “Manipulated Memory” Alarm
When viewed within the context of Serbia’s objectives toward Kosovo, the Russian Historical Society goes beyond a mere security threat, it must be seen as the most challenging obstacle to Western efforts for normalization through the Brussels Process. A so-called “scientific” society led by intelligence operatives does not produce knowledge; it produces influence. In this sense, its Belgrade branch will serve to establish a form of “manipulated memory” as a tool of mobilization.
Serbia has long applied this approach by combining state and non-state actors, such as Lista Srpska, illegal structures, terrorist groups, media outlets, the Church, and espionage networks, to reinforce Serbian “unity” in Kosovo against the “temporary state” and the “aggression” of NATO. It has staged terrorist attacks and justified them as “reactions” under the narrative of “Serb persecution,” interfered in elections to undermine democracy, amplified deceptive victimization propaganda to deepen ethnic divisions, and denied war crimes to impose its own “truth,” claiming Kosovo’s “illegality” under international law despite the 2010 ICJ ruling.
This strategy now requires the “Historical Society” to internalize in the collective consciousness the image of Russia as a “savior” and to consolidate resistance to NATO, the West, and democracy, all portrayed as “threats” to values, identity, and “Slavic brotherhood.”
In this context, Kosovo faces a direct threat from the aims of the “Historical Society,” which seeks to shape the consciousness of the Serbian community according to these parameters. Therefore, the establishment of its branch in Belgrade must be seen as an alarm, a call to defend historical truth and to prevent history itself from being weaponized for hegemonic purposes.