Serbia

Climate

Main article: Climate in Europe

Cities

• Belgrade

Nationality

Passport strength

Population

Main article: Population of Serbia

Parliament

2023: President Vucic's "Progressive Party" wins the election. The opposition is trying to organize a color revolution

The party of Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic won the most votes in the early elections on December 17, 2023, the early counting of votes showed.

The Progressive Party won 46.6% of the vote, while the pro-Western Serbia Against Violence won only 23%. The Socialist Party, an ally of Vucic, received 6.9%.

Dissatisfied with the election results attempt to storm the election commission building.

Representatives of the Serbia Against Violence coalition demand to annul their results, as they could not get the required number of votes. Its leaders went on a hunger strike, and coordinators are calling on citizens to block the election commission building.

Earlier on November 1, 2023, Serbian President Vucic announced the dissolution of parliament and the appointment of early elections.

Opposition forces made such a demand in early September. For six months, mass protests were held weekly in Belgrade under the slogan "Serbia against violence," the reason for which was the shooting at the Vladislav Rybnikar elementary school. However, the slogans of the protesters shocked by the tragedy quickly changed to the demands of the resignation of the current government.

And here, as always, it was not without the participation of Western countries. Behind the movements participating in the "anti-violence" marches were nongovernmental organizations and foundations funded by them, as well as opposition parties seen in close ties with European structures. Having achieved the appointment of early elections, they were ready to act as a single coalition.

Opposition representatives did not hide that they were in favor of early European integration and the country's accession to NATO, as well as the imposition of sanctions against Russia, which had been opposed by Vucic's team for so long.

Despite its name, Serbia Against Violence attempted on December 25 precisely the violent seizure of administrative buildings in Belgrade. Stones and fires flew into the Serbian security forces, but the police barricaded themselves in the city council did not allow the protesters to break inside.

At 20.00 local time, Alexander Vucic made an emergency appeal to the nation from his residence. He urged Serbian citizens not to panic, although the scenes are "dramatic." According to the president, all violators of law and order will be punished, and "there is no talk of a revolution."

After another attempt by the demonstrators to take the building of the Belgrade parliament by storm, the Serbian Gendarmerie arrived at the scene. Detentions began, 35 provocateurs from among the most aggressive protesters were arrested.

According to Vucic, the country's leadership knew in advance about the opposition's preparation of a scenario of a "color revolution" in Serbia. Moreover, he thanked the "foreign specialists" who gave Serbian intelligence information about the preparation of the coup. After an emergency meeting of the National Security Council, the Prime Minister of Serbia also spoke with gratitude. Ana Brnabic said that Russian special services shared information about the upcoming "color revolution" with the Serbian security forces.

In the morning, Alexander Vucic met with the Russian ambassador.

2022: Proportion of women in Parliament

Government

Main article: Government of the Republic of Serbia

Armed Forces

2022: Balance of power in potential conflict in Kosovo

After the escalation of the situation in Kosovo and Metohija on July 31, 2022, experts from all over the world began to discuss a possible military conflict on the territory of the self-proclaimed republic.

Judging by the power ratio presented on the map below, everything looks good enough for Serbia, if you do not take into account one nuance: the NATO KFOR peacekeeping mission. The presence of foreign troops from NATO member countries in Kosovo and Metohija is the most aggravating factor that will allow the North Atlantic Alliance to fully get involved in the conflict on the side of Kosovo.

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said in August 2022 that the Serbs "will not even allow NATO to open fire on their people" in the region. A natural question arises as to how much the Serbian army is ready for a potential armed clash.

In the ranking of countries in the world in terms of military power Global Firepower 2022, Serbia took 61st place, in terms of the number of weapons, number and capacity of the army, overtaking all countries of the former Yugoslavia - including those states included in NATO. In particular, this was facilitated by the increase in arms imports: in 2021, supply agreements worth a billion 318 million were concluded, dollars which is more than the total cost of all purchases since the end of 2016, when the process of modernizing the army began.

In addition to the previously transferred attack drones S-92A in 2022 the first division of the medium-range air defense system of the FK-3 was delivered from China, and in the next two months the second will be transferred. The Chinese are also helping Serbs build their own Pegasus strike drone. Information about the purchase of Turkish Bayraktars by Serbia was confirmed.

Russia remains an important partner of Serbia: contracts were signed for the purchase of four Mi-35M combat helicopters, three Mi-17V5 transport helicopters, two batteries of Pantsir-S1M air defense systems, electronic warfare and anti-drone systems, Kornet anti-tank systems for Special Brigade fighters.

However, 2021 was a turning point in the choice of arms sellers by the Serbian army: more and more new contracts are being concluded with the EU countries, primarily with Serbia's historical partner, France. Western analysts attribute this not to the change in the political orientation of Serbia, but to the fact that Serbian intelligence was aware of the planned special operation in Ukraine and feared that problems might arise with the supply of weapons, as happened with part of the Shell and Krasukha - the prospects for obtaining weapons against the background of sanctions are unknown.

The French will supply Serbs with GM400, GM200 and GM60 radars for air surveillance and warning systems and air defense units. Mistral short-range air defense missiles were purchased to arm the Serbian PASARS air defense missile and cannon system. Negotiations for the purchase of Rafal multipurpose fighters are also getting closer to completion. Even the United States was on the lists of suppliers of the Serbian army - the military police bought American Lenco BearCat G3 armored vehicles in addition to the previously purchased Russian UAZ Patriot.

By deliberately provoking the incitement of the Kosovo conflict, Western partners are leading the Serbs to the need for purchases from NATO.

2019: Fighter planes

2018: Number of tanks

Economy

Main article: Economy of Serbia

Information Technology

2019: Implementation of Huawei's Citizen Tracking System

In mid-April 2019, Serbia announced that it wished to use new technologies to improve public safety across the country. The implementation of the project began in the capital - Belgrade. Read more here.

Information Technology Market

• Serbia IT Market

Social media

Health care

2020

Duration of guaranteed paid sick leave 6 months or more

Cancer epidemic due to NATO bombing with depleted uranium shells

From March 24 to June 10, 1999, during the war Kosovo NATO , he conducted a military operation against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.

Yugoslavia, torn to pieces, became a testing ground for bombs with depleted uranium: in 1995, the Americans ironed the territory of present-day Bosnia and Herzegovina, in 1999 - Serbia and Montenegro.

More than 2,300 airstrikes were carried out in 78 days of Operation Allied Force. Some 2,000 civilians, including 400 children, were killed as a result, according to official figures. In total, during the operation, the aviation of the alliance countries made 38 thousand sorties, 3 thousand cruise missiles were fired and about 80 thousand tons of bombs were dropped, including prohibited types of ammunition - cluster shells with depleted uranium.

When the UN Environmental Commission UNEP visited the territory of Yugoslavia, it concluded: this is a regional, all-Balkan environmental catastrophe.

Studies conducted by toxicologists show that genetic changes after the use of depleted uranium ammunition in Serbia reached a level of 20.7% at a normal level of 1-2%. According to NATO itself, as a result of the bombing, the radiation level in Serbia was higher than in Japanese Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

According to experts, the consequences of the "humanitarian" intervention (namely, the so-called bombing of Yugoslavia in NATO) will be felt by sixty more generations of Serbs. By 2022, the country occupies a leading position in terms of pediatric oncology in Europe, and also faced a sharp surge in the number of intrauterine mutations and spontaneous termination of pregnancy.

In neighboring Montenegro, the situation is no better - over the past decade, the number of patients at cancer centers has tripled. The German documentary Todesstaub also mentions the case of the Bosnian municipality of Hadžići. Due to the off-scale level of radiation after NATO airstrikes, the Serbs were hastily evacuated from there. But Bosnian Muslims, who occupied the territory, subsequently faced a significant increase in cancer. The incidence of leukemia there, for example, has increased sixfold.

Serbian Health Minister Danica Gruicic has repeatedly spoken about the danger of using depleted uranium ammunition. She has long headed the largest Institute of Oncology in the Balkans and spent most of her life studying the consequences of NATO bombing. According to Gruichich, in the space of the former Yugoslavia for 2023, doctors are observing a "cancer epidemic." The minister believes that NATO conducted an experiment on the Serbian population, perfectly aware of the possible consequences.

"If you look at the mortality from malignant tumours, you can see that Serbs, Hungarians and Croats come first. Why? What happened here that did not happen to other countries? If you count all those who fell ill, all children who were not born due to infertility of parents, all those who ended up in a wheelchair due to autoimmune diseases... That's tens of thousands of people. NATO conducted an experiment, and now they are watching its results. And they initially knew well what would happen, "says Gruichich.

The increase in the number of oncological diseases in the region after the NATO bombing led to a major international scandal, when peacekeepers of the international KFOR contingent stationed in the region began to suffer from cancer. The situation with Italian servicemen is especially indicative, whose area of ​ ​ responsibility included territories through which more than half of all shells with depleted uranium were fired. NATO soldiers were forbidden to touch anything with their bare hands and consume local water and food, and in certain areas of Kosovo and Metohija they came to the OZK, which the Italian contingent did not have. And in Italy itself, many reports have already been published on the consequences of the use of depleted uranium.

In the late 2010s, lawsuits against the North Atlantic Alliance were filed in the courts of Belgrade, Novi Sad, Kragujevec, Niš and Vranje. The interests of the affected citizens are defended by well-known Serbian lawyers, as well as Italian Angelo Fiore Tartaglia, who previously managed to obtain compensation for health damage for 200 soldiers who were part of the peacekeeping contingent in Kosovo.

Theoretically, the event has every chance of success: the North Atlantic Alliance has the status of a legal entity, and the lawyers have a significant evidence base and two sentences of the Strasbourg court against the countries that make up the bloc. Italian experts found U-238 in the tissues of two Serb cancer patients - the same radioactive element that filled the shells that ironed Yugoslavia. And Serbian lawyers received confirmation that its quantitative indicators in patient cells exceed the norm by 500 (!) Times.

Lawyers do not give up hope to obtain compensation from NATO for victims for the use of prohibited ammunition. The need to bring those responsible to justice is also spoken in the Republika Srpska (an entity within Bosnia and Herzegovina). Parliament Chairman Nenad Stevandich recently said that those with malignant diseases in areas subjected to NATO bombing should receive compensation and recalled that there are already court precedents in Europe.

However, the North Atlantic Alliance has already rushed to declare that they have "immunity from responsibility."

Hygiene

Depression

2019: Chronic depression affects 4.3% of the population aged 15 + years

at 15

Maternity leave

in

Sport

2022: The most popular sport is football

Culture

Music

Language

Performance

Marina Abramovich

In 1974, RITM Abramovich held the Rhythm 0 performance in Naples. During it in the gallery, the audience was locked with the artist. The audience had 72 items that were selected as pleasure-inducing tools (rose, honey, grapes, pencil, paints, candle, polaroid camera), pain (whip, scissors, scalpel, matches) or death (bullet, pistol).

The gallery posted information that during the performance, Abramovich's body is at the disposal of the audience and they can do whatever they please with it (as well as with the objects on the table). She herself remained motionless all this time. At first, people were confused and did nothing, then gradually began to get involved in the game, and their activity turned into real aggressiveness.

Ultimately, her clothes were cut, her body was tilted with rose spikes, cuts were made on her body, and some even drank her blood.

"I wanted to show one thing: it's just amazing how quickly a person can return to a wild cave state if allowed to do so."

Religion

2022

33.4% of the population believes in life after death

19% of the population attends divine services at least once a month

2021:34% of the population say religion is important in their lives

2016: Proportion of believing population

Education

Literacy rate

Cooperation with Russia

• Gazprom's business in Serbia

2022: Refusal to recognize Crimea

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic used to regularly communicate with Russian President Putin. On January 2023 the conflict in Ukraine puts the relationship between them to the test.

In an interview in Belgrade in January 2023, President Aleksandar Vucic rejected Russia's territorial claims in Ukraine and predicted that "the worst of the conflict is yet to come," as both sides are bogged down. Vucic, who has held dozens of meetings with Putin in recent years and has taken Russian lessons to be able to speak to him directly, said he had not spoken to his counterpart for "many months."

"We said from the very beginning that we cannot and are not able to support Russia's invasion of Ukraine," Vucic said. "For us, Crimea is Ukraine, Donbass is Ukraine - and it will remain so."

"It would be wrong to believe that his government fully supports the leadership in Moscow," he said. "We don't always rejoice in some of their positions. We have traditionally good relations, but this does not mean that we support every decision or most decisions that come from the Kremlin. "

Russian-Serbian trade grew by 56% to $2.4 billion in the first 7 months

The Russian-Serbian trade turnover from January to July 2022 amounted to $2.4 billion, an increase of 56.94% compared to last year.

2020: Analogue "ERA-GLONASS" will be created in Serbia

On March 5, 2020, GLONASS informed TAdviser about the signing of the protocol on intergovernmental activities of the Russian Federation and the Republic of Serbia.

Igor Milashevsky, Director General of GLONASS JSC, and Nenad Popovic, Minister of Innovation and Technological Development of the Government of the Republic of Serbia, signed a memorandum of cooperation on the introduction of innovative technologies in the field of information and navigation services. Read more here.

Crime

2022: Spike in crime as illegal migration from the Middle East rises

Serbian law enforcement officers in July 2022 launched a large-scale special operation on the border with Hungary. During the raid in the vicinity of the city of Sombor, more than 70 migrants were detained. About three thousand more illegal immigrants were found by the Serbian police near Subotica.

The reason for the action was the incident on July 2, when as a result of a collision of immigrants from the Middle East with the use of weapons, local residents were injured: one person died, six were hospitalized with severe gunshot wounds.

However, the crisis, apparently, is gaining momentum again. Recently, Serbia has recorded an increase in the number of crimes committed by migrants. The number of robberies and burglaries of houses of local residents, as well as showdowns on the streets with the use of cold and small arms, has increased significantly. Moreover, some sections of the border zone are actually under the control of illegal immigrants.

2021: Low number of premeditated murders

and

Prisons

2019: The minimum age for children to be jailed is 14

2018: Number of prisoners

History

2024

Kosovo and Metohija prepare for hostilities with the support of Western countries

In January 2024, Pristina - the capital of Serbia's autonomous region of Kosovo and Metohija - is actively preparing for hostilities, increasing the number of personnel of the Kosovo Security Forces (KBS), which under Resolution 1244 UN have no right to exist at all. The KBS is increasingly conducting exercises, including with the Armed Forces, Albania which is considered by the Serbs as a provocation.

The budget of militants from the KBS exceeded 200 million euros, which is not only a record amount, but also amounts to 2% of GDP, according to NATO standards. The allocated money is used to purchase primarily American weapons. Also, "Prime Minister" Kurti plans to introduce compulsory conscription military service, despite the outflow of personnel and the riot of security officials.

In the north of Kosovo and Metohija, the construction of "police" bases and observation posts continues. In recent times, the "Kosovo police" have also been digging trenches near a stronghold in Bistritsa. In the north, large KFOR forces are also seen, which are constantly on the move.

A new battalion of Italian KFOR forces arrived in Kosovo and Metohija. At the same time, Italy had not previously announced its intention to increase its contingent. We are talking about a reserve battalion, which was formed from the forces of the NATO operational reserve and is actually reinforcements.

At this time, there are about five thousand KFOR soldiers in Kosovo, and in 2024 their number increased by a thousand due to the latest crisis in the north of the region. Previous reinforcements of KFOR soldiers came from Britain, Bulgaria, Croatia and Romania. In 2024, Albania, Macedonia, Germany and the United States will increase their contingents .

The Bundeswehr stationed 80 soldiers in KiM. The contingent will be increased by about 200 people, including support staff.

Allowing cars with "Kosovo" numbers from the region of Kosovo and Metohija to enter central Serbia

Serbia faces unprecedented pressure in the autonomous province of Kosovo and Metohija (KiM), which is effectively controlled by Kosovo's unrecognized entity. Petar Petkovic, Director of the Office for Kosovo and Metohija, announced that the Serbian government has decided to allow entry into central Serbia and the free movement of cars with "Kosovo" numbers from January 1, 2024. Messages should be posted at all checkpoints on the administrative line that indicate "non-recognition."

The KiM office said that this was done for the sake of Kosovo sebras, which, under pressure from Albanians, massively re-register cars from Serbian to "Kosovo." In 2022, the numbers caused the construction of barricades and protests, but the Kosovo Serbs alone could not provide greater resistance to the militants and "peacekeepers."

2023: Serbian business forced to leave Kosovo and Metohija region

In mid-December 2023, EU Special Representative for Dialogue between Belgrade and the capital of the region Pristina Miroslav Lajcak announced that an electricity agreement had been signed between the "Kosovo" company KEDS and Elektrosevera (EP, Serbia). Now Serbs from the north of KiM will begin to pay for electricity, but not to the Serbian EPU, but to the Albanians. In fact, the EP ceases its activities in KiM. Also, from January 1, 2024, one of the largest Serbian banks, Komercijalna banka, left the region.

1999

Bombing of NATO forces led to the death of 2.5 thousand people, including 87 children

From March 24 to June 10, 1999, during the war in Kosovo, NATO conducted a military operation against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.

Aggression against the sovereign state was illegitimate: the alliance did not receive permission from the UN Security Council, and Russia and China opposed interference in the internal affairs of Yugoslavia. To this day, international experts call NATO's actions a gross violation of international law.

On March 27, 1999, Serbian air defense forces shot down an American F-117A bomber near the Serbian village of Budzhanovtsy near the city of Ruma (40 km west of Belgrade).

NATO bombing has killed more than 2.5 thousand people, including 87 children, and caused $100 billion in damage, and the consequences of the use of depleted uranium are recorded by doctors in 2023.

It was not until 2023 that US Ambassador to Serbia Christopher Hill offered his condolences to the families of those killed in the 1999 NATO bombing.

US, Britain demand Hungary attack Serbia

US President Bill Clinton demanded that Hungary attack Serbia overland from the north during NATO aggression in 1999, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said in an address to the nation in October 2022.

"Now I will tell you what you did not know. In 1999, Hungary was supposed to attack Serbia with ground forces, which Viktor Orban (President of Hungary) confirmed to me and allowed me to tell the public about it. From him, American President Bill Clinton demanded, like the British, that they attack the Republic of Serbia from the north, that we stretch our forces onto Vojvodina, which Viktor Orban refused and was under great pressure. German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder helped him cope with this pressure in the White House, "Vucic said.

According to him, Margaret Tetcher subsequently rebuked Orban for "more British soldiers died due to his refusal. Here's all the love you can talk about with them.'

1988

1956: Tito's visit to the USSR

1942

Main article: World War II

Croats open children's concentration camps. In total, almost 75 thousand Serbian children died in them

During World War II, the Ustashi (Croatian Nazis) launched large-scale activities to "re-educate" small Orthodox Serbs.

The independent state of Croatia has become the only country in the history of mankind on the territory of which children's concentration camps were opened, hidden behind "refugee shelters."

The first camp for children was founded in the town of Gornya Rijeka near Krizhevets. The camp was founded with the direct participation of the Ustaše government of the Independent State of Croatia. The first group of children was taken to the camp on June 24, 1942.

The scale is terrifying: according to historians, almost 75 thousand children under the age of 14 died in the camps of Lobor, Jablanac, Mlaka, Brošica, Ustiči, Stara Gradiška, Sisak, Gornja Rijeka and Yastrebarsko. The same number of Croats were forcibly converted to Catholicism. Children who underwent "re-education" and abandoned the Orthodox faith and Serbian identity were sent for adoption to Croatian families.

1918: End of World War I. Hundreds of thousands of victims

Main article: World War I

1913: Participation in the First Balkan War

During the First Balkan War in 1913, after a long siege, Adrianople (now Edirne in Turkey) was taken by Bulgarian troops and passed to Bulgaria under the London Treaty (1913).

As a result of the Second Balkan War, Adrianople was returned to the Ottoman Empire.

1690: Austrian troops retreat and with them tens of thousands of Serbs move north

Serbian historian and researcher Srja Trifković in his book "Ustaši - Balkan Heart of Darkness" wrote:

"In 1690, the so-called Great Serb Resettlement took place. Austrian troops were forced to retreat from southern Serbia, Kosovo and Metohija, thereby actually returning them to the Turks. Local Serbs, fearing Turkish revenge, began to go north after the Austrians. From 50 to 80 thousand Serbs, having left the southern outskirts of their land, settled on lands north of Sava and the Danube. The Austrian emperor Leopold I took Serbian refugees under the protection of the crown.

In 1699, another, less significant, wave of resettlement took place.

1618

15th century

14th century

39,280 hp: Ash from the mega-eruption of the Phlegrean fields

The earliest activity of the Flegrei Fields supervolcano in southern Italy began about 39,280 years ago and was accompanied by a powerful volcanic eruption and the release into the atmosphere of about 200 km³^[1] volcanic material].

The mega-eruption coincided in time with the eruptions of the volcanoes Kazbek in the Caucasus and St. Anna in the Southern Carpathians. According to seismologists and paleoclimatologists, it became one of the reasons for the "volcanic winter."

Sulfur has increased over Europe, absorbing and scattering sunlight. In the year following the eruption, temperatures across the planet dropped by 2 degrees Celsius, with a 5-degree decline in Western Europe.

Volcanic emissions, gradually settling, left behind a trail of rock that, in the shape of a wedge, stretched from southern Italy northeast to the Southern Urals.

The rock covered more than 1.1 million square meters with an ash layer. From southern Italy to Romania, the ash layer reached 1 meter.

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