Support for Putin and special operations

Aliya Ilyina is from Bashkiria, her mother is a Bashkir who moved to Moscow. 13 years ago, Aliya’s husband was offered a position in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The family lived there for 5.5 years. The girl says that when her husband’s contract ended, she was pregnant with a child and got so used to the country that she did not want it by law. At the family council, they decided: Aliya and her children would move to Belgrade, and her husband would come to them from Russia. The former Russian woman has been living in Serbia for more than 7 years and has since become a media personality: she works as a model, acts in films and commercials.

It should be noted that Serbia is the only country in Europe that is loyal to Russia. In Belgrade, several mass rallies and processions took place in the foreign policy of our country. However, the leadership of Serbia is under severe pressure to apply, which forces the authorities to maneuver: on the properties of the UN, Serbia voted for a resolution in which Moscow’s actions are manifested, but at the same time it refuses the inherent EU sanctions.

Aliya says that in the current events, the Serbs reinforce the parallels with the 90s, when they were also left face to face with NATO and the United States, and the entire world community accuses them of unleashing a conflict on the territory of the former Yugoslavia. It remains forever in their work and memory that the United States is an aggressor country.

– In Serbia, the attitude towards Russian is special. They are all Russophiles here, they try to believe and believe that Putin did the right thing when he started the special operation. Some say that he had no choice, anyone in his place would have done the same. They adore Putin, they believe that there is no better president at all. And they are sure that Russia cannot be defeated, not eradicated.

According to Aliya, no matter what reports she visits from Ukraine, she has not yet heard criticism of the Russians from a single person. “On the contrary, they surprised us. I speak Serbian well, but I don’t kill the Russian accent. Knowing that I am from Russia, they remember Yugoslavia when it was the only equipment, they say that they studied in English, and they remember some of it. Now they are often interested in what is happening in Russia, ”the interlocutor comments.

“For Serbs, Russians and Ukrainians – one people”

After the start of the special operation in Serbia, there were many accelerations from Ukraine, as well as those who left Russia. In general, the Russian community here is large. Aliya says that if 7 years ago, when she saw a Russian license plate on cars, she was surprised by the new ones, now people are constantly arriving. They come across as tourists, look around, and then settle down for a long time.

According to some reports, the wave of new “Russian emigration” since the end of February this year has reached from 10 to 20 thousand people. First of all, these are IT specialists whom Western employers have put before the fact: either you change your location, or you lose your contract. This was done, for example, at Microsoft, whose entire corporate office moved to Belgrade. Due to the influx of compatriots in the “Russian” taverns of the Serbian capital on Fridays, it became crowded.

Humanitarian aid to Ukrainians is not collected here, on the occasion, our interlocutor did not hear about it. Knowing about the attitude of the Serbs towards the Russians, however, refugees from Ukraine are coming here as well. Aliya slowed it down by the fact that the Serbs do not make us into Russians and Ukrainians, we are one people for them, just as earlier the Serbs, Croats, Montenegrins and so on were Yugoslavs. Her best friend is a Ukrainian by nationality, and she herself lives from the fact that she managed to quarrel the fraternal Orthodox peoples.

– I have not observed conflicts between Ukrainians and Russians, and there are no clashes in social networks. But in the atmosphere of gas there are posts that they are ready to accept children’s things, high chairs and so on. One woman who made such an announcement states why she writes that she is from Russia, although she herself is Ukrainian, and why her family left Russia for Belgrade? She replied that she was “Russian, from Moscow”, and they “fled” from the special operations. I don’t know why she’s so overprotective.

Why gasoline prices

Calling the court is a double-edged weapon, they also affect the inhabitants of European countries. True, in Serbia this is felt to a lesser extent.

– Gasoline prices have risen sharply. On this occasion, not only we, the Russians, but also the Serbs are indignant. But the prices of products have not changed. almost everything is in their places, they grow everything and discover it themselves,” Ilyina said.

But there was another problem. Many families live in two countries, and after the restriction on transfers abroad, it became difficult to receive money from Russia. Typically, husbands would send emotional content to their wives and children on a bank card, from which they could easily withdraw cash. The Ilyin family also faced this:

– My husband cannot send me money from Russia. We, the women who live here, feel it. But now a way has been found. Transfers came through Sberbank, there are branches of this bank here, and they work with us.

Eleonora Rylova

Society