Inside the country backing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine - BBC Newsnight visits Serbia 

breaking news: a country attacked by NATO is against NATO!

Not sure why most are making it sound like Serbia and Russia alliance is a new thing. They have been very well known supporters of each other for a very long time.

Funny how the US ambassador's main line of defense sounded like "our imperialism is better than theirs".

INTERESTING OPINION: Just as a reminder, in 1998 Serbia reacted exactly as Ukraine reacted in 2014 even softer! Not to mention that US and NATO were back then illegally providing weapons and logistics to terrorist groups on the ground (until 1997 UCK was described as a terrorist organization by the CIA itself) who were attacking Serbian police and civilians, kidnaping local people and selling their organs while UN and NATO were turning blind eyes on this. In 1998 Clinton magically changed their status from a terror group into "freedom fighters" and supported them on every possible way together with his NATO allies making a training camps right across Serbian Albanian border. When they fail to make anything on the ground since Serbian troops until the spring of 1999 recaptured almost all towns and villages in Kosovo, the US started bombing Serbia making direct war crimes and brake of international law for which until today no one was responsible. What US and UK were complaining about today is that they did precisely the same things to others but back then there was no mass media hysteria and I don't remember anyone placing sanctions on the US for war crimes and invading other countries in the past like Iraq. P.S. BBC deliberately picks some extreme examples like this guy and tries to reflect those to the whole society, go to Belgrade by yourself and ask regular people on the streets what they think.

Just as an reminder, during 1998 Serbia reacted exactly as Ukraine reacted in 2014 even softer! Not to mention that US and NATO were back then ilegally providing weapons and logistics to terrorist groups on the ground (until 1997 UCK was described as terrorist organization by CIA itself) who were attacking Serbian police and civilians, kidnaping local people and selling their organs while UN and NATO were turning blind eyes on this. In 1998 Clinton magically changed their status from a terror group into "freedom fighters" and supported them on every possible way together with his NATO allies making a training camps right across Serbian Albanian border. When they fail to make anything on the ground since Serbian troops until spring of 1999 recaptured almost all towns and villages in Kosovo, US started bombing Serbia making direct war crime and brake of international law for which until today no one was responsible. What US and UK were complaining today they did exactly the same things to others but back then there was no mass media hysteria and I don't remember anyone placing sanctions to US for war crimes and invading of other countries in the past like Iraq. P.S. BBC deliberately picking some extreme examples like this guy and try to reflect those to the whole society, go to Belgrade by yourself and ask regular people on the streets what they think.

My favourite part is this argument of the american ambassador, who says that we see them as friends because the involment in sports and appreciation of their culture. I find this truly hilarious. Forget about the bombings, forget about our involment in Kosovo's independence, forget about our army base that is there to always remind Serbs who is in control, forget about every narrative that portraits u Serbians as savages, focus at the involment in sports. Borderline criminal. That can maybe work with american people but not with us our dear ambassador.

I deeply apologize because US and UK propaganda is not strong in Serbia, hope you don’t mind

Researcher interviewed at 17:43 is from Belgrade Centre for Security Policy. This is part of Belgrade Security Forum which is aligned with NATO. So although they are described as 'independent' they are not exactly 'neutral'.

People in Serbia should be wary of those who are trying to offer them a good past. They are doing it because they are unable to offer them a good future.

I'm an American, who spent three weeks in Belgrade last month to visit family in the region. Honestly, I didn't have a single conversation with anyone about the war. The RT "propaganda" billboard in this video is actually an advertisement near the City Centre for RT Balkans, and the majority of souvenirs being sold are Serbian not Russian.

Serbia,a beautiful country, with beautiful people,I travelled around there last summer

Respect to Serbia !

BBC is talking about Russian propaganda🙈 the shortest anecdote ever🤣

Im from Serbia.A lot of people suport Russia but there is a lot of people for Ukraine.I think most of people are against this war.We welcomed a lot o people from Ukraine and Russia.

Americans are Distressed about Russia -UKR war . As much as Russians would be distressed about USA -Mexico war

I still cannot remember if bbc recorded when nato bombarded Yugoslavia?😮

That Serbian really said Nazism doesn’t exist in Russia while dressed as a skinhead😂

after he said "let me explain", he didn't explain anything.

Сербия и Россия братья навсегда!

"America is a friend" 🤣🤣 the type of friend to steal your wife

One propaganda tells that another propaganda is bad 😂

I’m a black American from Chicago, I had a lot of Serbian homies from berwyn , I’ve know about a lot of this stuff for a while. I overall side with Serbs and Russians as I relate to their struggles. May God bless their countries and heal their pains.

If only we Hungarians were this bold to show this much support to Russia. I am always jealous at Serbia when I see things like this Слава России, Сербии и Венгрии 🇭🇺❤🇷🇺🇷🇸

First of all, in all UN votes, Serbia has condemned Russia's attack on Ukraine, and has supported Ukraine's integrity. However, Serbia has not introduced sanctions against Russia, mainly for historical, religious, economic, and political circumstances. Let's be clear on this.

From Serbia, Ukrainian and Russian people are my friends and brothers and sisters. Praying for this to end. But also, we in Serbia know who is behind this conflict, and who was behind conflicts past decades all around the world.

If war is bad, was it also bad in Iraq Afghanistan Syria and lybia?

Imagine being arrested after being attacked and falsely accused of something you didn't do. Pure discrimination.

Fascinating, especially as a Greek American with Serbian and Ukrainian friends and relatives. Trying to make sense of this whole mess...

It's weird that nobody made a similar documentary type thing about countries like Turkey when USA was invading Iraq.

really good interview with Vlad the souvenir salesman. smart, engaging, diplomatic straight talk. appreciated.👍

Ukrainian and Russian people are my brothers and sisters!!! It's a shame how we forget our common history and the battles we fought together against the same enemy, true Serbs remember how many times Ukrainians stood by their Serbian brothers! Brothers and sisters, believe me, there are many conscious Serbs who remember that! They have been using the same tactics against us since ancient times, divide and rule. Of course, we are also guilty of allowing them to do so. Слава Роду!

"no one is the villain in their own story"

Long live serbia 🇷🇴🤜🤛🇷🇸

Respect to Serbia from a half-Serb in Sweden 🇸🇪❤️🇷🇸

Nato: *comits war crimes The rest of the work: ok Russia: invades Ukraine The rest of the world: oh no! I find it funny that nato received no repercussions for there actions💀

Does anyone remember Count Vronsky from Anna Karenina? The character that Tolstoy based the character of Vronsky on is the Russian colonel Nikolai Rajevsky who died as a volunteer for the freedom of Serbia in 1876 in the Serbo-Turkish war.Serbs are pro-Russian, but the majority would never wage war against Ukrainians, because in our eyes there is no difference between them, but if someone were to ask for volunteers for the war against the British, there would be tens of thousands of Serbian volunteers.

Avrage Serbian citisen doesn't care about how many US investments there are. They know why US does what it does. Just as no amount of money can make up for a loss of a loved one, no amount of investments and "fake redempion" can make Serbs forget/forgive the US for what it has done, and all the damage it caused.

Good old Serbians who were always on the right side of history..

I actually remember the shock that caused NATO bombing in across Russia. My friend was in a high school in a small town of Magadan, he actually studied in a so-called English-speaking school where focus was made on learning English language and US/UK culture and they had close ties with American Alaska state, and girls and boys were really pro-American there. But when NATO started bombing Belgrad the young 16-year guys just on their own decided to remove US flags from their classrooms, it was like their country of dream committed a crime.

I have yet to see a reporter ask Russians what the characteristics of fascism are.

Serbia has the state since 1815 ...Germany has the state since 1872.

I heard from Sebian people that Russia was the only country who stood by their side when they were bombed by Nato.

The ambassador gave the most american statement: „we helped them and we were good to them and they welcomed us and they need us“ 🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️

I am in Serbia at the moment it's a happy place, much better life than in say USA or Canada where I moved here from recently. More work too (a lot of western IT companies here outsourcing)

I'm Swedish and I'm just tired of the western media's lies and propaganda. There are many of us here in Sweden and the rest of Europe who support Russia. But, this is not visible, because all our comments in our media are blocked. We have no freedom of speech and thus no real democracy in our western so-called "democracies". And why do we support Russia? Well, because it was not Russia but NATO that has been aggressively expanding since the breakup of the Soviet Union. And it was not Russia but the Ukrainian regime that in 2014 started the war against its neighboring countries of Donetsk and Luhansk. Countries that today and after a referendum 2022 are part of Russia. By respecting the results of the referendum in these republics, Russia has also proved to be the only democratic country in today's sick Europe. So, when the Western regimes do not respect the will of the people in Donetsk and Luhansk, then one can ask what the word democracy really means to them: people's rule or gangster rule?!

I find this documentary very revealing. It impressed me how the journalist assumes the US propaganda in a natural way. And the part of the ambassador, the level of cynism is just from another planet. I'm from Spain and Kosovo is Serbia 🇷🇸 🇪🇸

I just hope this video doesnt make all Serbians look bad. Because i have alot of good and sane friends in Serbia, who dont support any kind of war. Greetings from Croatia.

breaking news: a country attacked by NATO is against NATO

Serbs are against NATO, not against Ukraine.

"Pan-slavism" affects only Serbia (discounting Belarus). They forgot that Russia was building bunkers in the Romanian Banat in preparation to attack Yugoslavia. Soviet propaganda was accusing Tito of being a "fascist beast" and of serving the "fascist west". People either have very short memory or they are just dumb. Or both.

I've spent a lot of time working in Serbia on/off for some years. It was a great surprise to me to realise that the Serbian people have a very elevated / educated culture and are warm and welcoming. Modern Serbia is moving forward to being a very successful and competitive Western-style country. There will always be (very understandably) anti NATO feeling, for the bombings of their cities.

Jedno je da dodjes u drugu zemlju, a drugo je da dodjes u drugu zemlju i protestvujes

👏 bravo Serbia! We Bulgarians will soon join you and leave NATO who is forcing us to go against Our Russian Brothers 🇧🇬🇷🇺🇷🇸❤️

After seeing the Serbian parlament members I am not surprised that they support staunchly Putin. Most of the men look like a bouncers in the club.

It’s no surprise Serbia backs Russia. Since before WWI they have always seen Russia as a protector of the Slavic people. Russia backed Serbia against Austria in 1914. The West has little influence here.

British colonialism killed at least 100.000.000 people ! Let’s talk about that !

The reporter gave huge space to Vuk Vuksanović without saying that he works for an autocolonial outfit almost fully funded by the West. It is not professional to frame, de facto, local Western lobbyist (dressed as "researcher") as an unbiased analyst.

I have been to Serbia at the start of the war, people don’t talk about this Russia-Ukraine war at all.

Some Have mentioned amnesia and Croatia. and who started war. Let me refresh your memory 1. One of the federal republics (Croatia) of FEDERAL republic of YUGOSLAVIA in 1991 started to import enormous numbers of Kalashnikovs from Hungary paid by BND for Croatian Police 2. Later the Police will be transformed into paramilitary forces and later in Army ( end of 1991). 3 Croatian Police started ''Donobasing'' Serbian population. 4. Croatia declared UNIATERAL independence from YU. 5. Croatia kicked out Serbs out of its Constitution and overnight they became second class citizens 6 . Croatia started blockade ,sieging and attacking Federal Army barracks. 7. Some of Serbian members of home guard did kill some Cro Policemen but in the Whole civil war there were no genocides on Serbian side. That is about beginning of the Croatian Treason...................

Lol BBC is talking about propaganda, 😂

This is all very concerning!

Strange how people will fight other people, but not go and get in the fight. While others want nothing but peace.

15:54 - The response of that ambassador was just.... sad

I was speaking with my Serbian friend, me a Greek, about the war through a religious point of view. His answer was that this war doesnt make sense, not that other war makes sense, and he doesnt really want to talk about it because it makes him sad even debating who is in the right side and who is not. I couldnt agree more with him. I dont understand why BBC choose to interview people with a curtain idiology, who exist in every country of the world, to back up its provocative title. This is not news

Texting while talking on national tv about breadth and depth is pretty ironic

Serbia has always been like this.

Much respect to our Serbian and Russian Orthodox Brothers! We the Greeks are on your side and always have been! 🇬🇷☦️🇷🇸☦️🇷🇺

Why is everyone surprised? Russia might not have supported directly militarily Serbia during Yugoslavia wars but it certainly supported Serbia in every other way. Serbia had two friends during NATO bombing of Belgrade and that was Russia and Greece (Orthodox nations) but it is defo army related to NATO bombing of Belgrade. Edit: and of course the KOSOVO story.

That's what loyalty and brotherhood look like. Be witness to it, compare it to your western "union". Connect some dots maybe.

Kosovo could easily have been serbian. But.. serbian attacked Slovenia, then Croatia, then Bosniaks ( in a very very genocidal way, Sarajevo bombin russian style, Srebrenica civilian massacre, concentration camps, organized mass rapes, ethnic cleansing) and finally Albanians in Kosovo, another genocidal enterprise. Serbian bloody enterprise lasted a year short of a whole decade. Finally, a swift Nato operation targeting serbian military targets brought peace to Balkans and ended serbian slaughterhouse enterprise. Not much more to it, but for sordid, brutal details. And yes, there were volunteer russian snipers on the hills above Sarajevo (from where serbian artillery shelled city marketplaces and residential areas). Had serbia not decided to attack most constituent nationalities -unarmed- one by one - using country's Yugoslav army (dominated by them) Yugoslavia would still exist and serbs would still have dominant position. And Kosovo. But they chose a different path.

Everyone is the good guy in their own eyes

Britain that used to be great once upon a time bombed Serbia twice: Once during WWII , and once as part of NATO during the Kosovo conflict in the previous century. Now, the British government may claim " that it was done for our own good" but then Hitler and his Nazi Germany could have claimed that they bombed London during WWII " for your own good" given the centuries old " misunderstanding " with Ireland, for example.Russia, by the way, never bombed us.

The Serbs remember who it was who bombed them . Spoiler it wasn't russia

A setup , staged by the BBC. Like a film , with a director for every scene.

Anything on the Seymur hersh story here? Or did the BBC memory hold it?

You can't blame Serbia for being upset losing their families and friends in 1999. The answer of investment and sport in their country is awful. That doesn't bring anyone back to life. You can't buy everyone

But Serbia is a beautiful country! At least Germans think so. Every 40 years they go to visit Serbia :)

This is only one in a long line of reasons why Serbia will never be let into the EU or be taken seriously on the world stage!

I am guessing all the Russian couch woriors with letter Z on their cars moved to Serbia right after Putin announced mobilization.

thank you for this information. It is hard to watch the division and hard to see how people struggle to find the truth.

NEVER BELIEVE STUFF BBC SAYS 😂😂😂😂

The belief in the West that they are RIGHT and everybody else is wrong is mind blowing.

"What ,invade another country. NO ,ONLY WE'RE ALLOWED TO DO THAT ! " George Carlin .

Why is foreign swearing censored?

To this day there are no Serbs who condemn the genocide they committed in Bosnia and Kosovo. Although it is very sad to see the pictures of the five children killed during NATO bombing there were thousands of children, women, elderly and unarmed men executed by Serbians in Bosnia and Kosovo. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-bVUg-VoPAeA.html

It is extremely important to note for everyone saying that the Serbs should not live in the past but to turn to EU and the future. Despite more than 20 years of negotiations, Serbia's progress towards EU membership has been limited, and it's unclear if the EU will ultimately accept them. As a result, many citizens of Serbia have lost interest in and trust towards the West."

One problem about a war everyone has a friend.

There will always be people that are Pro-Russia anywhere in the world. Separatist groups here in the Philippines are waving the Soviet Russia rick & sickle flags. But it doesnt mean Russia has the right to support those rebels with weapons & annexed sovereign territories for Russia.

When on 27 march 1941 a group of Serbian Air Force officers did coup d'etat (with a little help from MI 6) ,brought young King Peter II on Throne and effectively declared war on Hitler, Sir Winston Churchill said ''The Serbs have found their soul again!''

Just listen to the ominous voice the correspondent makes in the start of the video when mentioning Serbia, like it's the Death Star or something. And who does he find to represent Serbia? A guy in a Putin t-shirt whom he admits was arrested in Serbia. Also, the reporter claims that NATO's bombing of Civilians in Belgrade put an end to the war. That is a very disturbing claim if you think about it for a minute.

Apparently Serbians never tasted Ruskiy Mir.

The oldest attested document written in Albanian dates back to 1462, while the first audio recording in the language was made by Norbert Jokl on 4 April 1914 in Vienna.

I am 75 years spend the war inSarajevo till that time I believe to BBC but since then I do not at all. Do you Know way. What I want is that we stay nutral and freedom country for all West and east

After what the West and USA did to Serbia in the Kosovo war, of course that they are going to support Rusia. Respect from Romania!

I'm not on the Russian side on this one, but I find it funny the BBC is critical of Russian media. News flash guys, they all lie, and nobody knows what's really going on. But this is highly entertaining. Thank you BBC. Very entertaining segment.

1999 Never Forget ☝🏽 No to NATO .

We are not backing Russian invasion, we are against the war, we see it as tragic war between two slavic and orthodox countries and we wish for peace. ps: And in short if you wanna know why Serbs love Russia so much beyond all cultural ties, the biggest thing is that if Russia didn't backed us up in WW1 we probably wouldn't exist today.

You should go to Bulgaria its a nato country and yet most of them prefer Russia over nato

DID YOU SEE THAT BUILDINGS AT 1:30??WELL THAT IS THE REASON WHY WE SUPPORT RUSSIA.RUSSIA NEVER BOMBED SERBIA LIKE YOU BRITISH,AMERICAN AND EUROPEAN COUNTRYS!!!RUSSIAN AND OUR FRIENDSHIP LAST FOR CENTURIES.I WILL NOT SPEAK ABOUT UKRAINE,RU-vid WILL BLOCK ME BUT IT WAS ENOUGH VIOLENCE IN CRIMEA!!!РУССКИЕ ВПЕРЕД!!!🇷🇸🇷🇺

Sick