According to The Serbian Economist, the European Commission believes that Serbia’s granting of citizenship to Russian citizens poses potential security risks to the EU, as holders of Serbian passports are entitled to visa-free entry into EU countries.
Guillaume Mercier, the European Commission’s Enlargement Commissioner, stated that this issue had already been raised in the 2025 Enlargement Report. In that report, the European Commission recommended that Serbia continue to align with EU visa policy and ensure more thorough screening of third-country nationals, particularly those from countries that may pose security risks or contribute to illegal migration.
At the same time, the scale of Serbia’s naturalization of Russians remains incomparably lower than in EU countries. According to Serbia’s Migration Profile, 191 former Russian citizens received Serbian citizenship in 2024. In 2023, there were 532 such cases, and in 2022, 275.
By comparison, Germany alone granted citizenship to 12,980 former or current Russian citizens in 2024. That is nearly 68 times more than Serbia granted in the same year. Spain granted citizenship to 2,588 Russians, Finland to about 1,600, Switzerland to 815, Norway to 782, and the United Kingdom to over 2,300.
According to Eurostat, in 2024, approximately 31,000 Russians received citizenship in EU countries.
Estimated data on the granting of citizenship to Russians in Europe in 2024:
EU total – about 31,000 people
Germany – 12,980
Spain – 2,588
United Kingdom – over 2,300
Finland – about 1,600
Switzerland – 815
Norway – 782
Serbia – 191
For Belgrade, this issue is part of a broader dialogue with Brussels regarding visa policy, migration, and European integration.
For Serbia itself, the situation is ambiguous. On the one hand, the country is interested in maintaining relations with Russia, attracting capital and migrants, and supporting a visa-free regime for Russians. On the other hand, visa and migration policy could become an additional source of friction in relations with the EU.
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