Kremlin Warns West Against Backing ‘Color Revolution’ in Serbia As Protests Grow

This weekend saw ongoing protests in the streets of Serbia’s capital Belgrade explode, resulting in clashes with police which included tear gas, batons, and riot control measures deployed against angry crowds which at times hurled flares and bottles.

The demonstrators, which various media reports have estimated reached at least 140,000 people in the city center, are demanding early elections and an end to President Aleksandar Vučić’s 12-year rule. His second term ends in 2027, at which point parliamentary elections are also scheduled.

Vucic’s opponents accuse him and his allies of deep corruption which includes ties to organize crime, resulting in violence against rivals – and in the process greater government control of the media.

The Serbian leader, who maintains warm ties with Russia, says “They wanted to topple Serbia, and they have failed” – according to recent words on his Instagram page.

The growing protests have resulted in the Kremlin weighing in, with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov saying Monday that Western countries must not back a “color revolution” in the Balkan state.

“We hope Western countries, which often exploit domestic affairs in other states to advance their interests, will refrain from color revolutions this time,” Lavrov said, as cited in TASS.

“We are monitoring the situation. We support calming the unrest, as Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić said, in line with the constitution and laws of this friendly state,” he added.

At the same time, Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters, “We cannot rule out the possibility that well-known tactics employed for carrying out color revolutions are now being used in Serbia.”

Serbia, notably, is heavily dependent on Russian gas and has long been an Orthodox Christian-majority Slavic ally of Moscow, particularly going back to the 1999 US-NATO bombing of Belgrade.

While the protests have been raging for months, they are clearly getting bigger, as over the weekend local media says 48 police officers were injured

BREAKING: Chaos erupts in the streets of Belgrade (Serbia).

Riot police have fired tear gas as protesters that demand early elections from the pro-EU government. pic.twitter.com/zaYJN3h930

— Global Dissident (@GlobalDiss) June 28, 2025

Many dozens of people were arrested, with at least eight protesters currently facing charges related to plans to block roads and attack government facilities. 

The initial anti-government protests were ignited over six months ago, in the wake the deadly collapse of a train station roof in Novi Sad in November – a tragedy which many attribute to systemic corruption.

Serbia remains another one of those East-West fault line countries in which Europe and NATO would like to see a government which moves away from generally warm relations with Russia’s Putin. By and large the population is still anti-NATO, given their memories of the brutal bombing campaign of 1999 led by US warplanes under Clinton.