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.
https://t.me/relocationrs/3012
According to Serbian Economist, Serbia has concluded negotiations with Hungary’s MOL regarding a shareholder agreement concerning NIS and will be able to acquire an additional 5% stake in the Serbian oil company, provided that MOL reaches an agreement with Gazprom Neft to buy out the Russian stake and the deal receives approval from the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC).
This was announced by Serbia’s Minister of Mining and Energy, Dubravka Jedović-Handanović.
Serbia currently owns 29.9% of NIS shares. Russia’s Gazprom Neft and Gazprom collectively control about 56.2% of the company. Hungary’s MOL is negotiating the purchase of this stake, but the deal requires approval from OFAC due to sanctions related to Russian participation in NIS.
According to Jedović-Handanović, the purchase of an additional 5% stake will strengthen Serbia’s position in approving and blocking decisions of strategic importance to the country’s economy. This is crucial for Belgrade, as NIS controls Serbia’s key oil infrastructure, including the country’s sole oil refinery in Pančevo.
As part of the agreements, MOL also committed to maintaining operations at the Pančevo refinery at least at the level of average annual capacity over the last four years prior to the imposition of U.S. sanctions.
For Serbia, the deal involving NIS is one of the key energy issues of 2026. Belgrade needs to simultaneously maintain the stability of fuel supplies, reduce sanctions risks, and retain its influence over a company that is of systemic importance to the country’s economy.
https://t.me/relocationrs/3011
According to Serbian Economist, Kosovo held early parliamentary elections—the third in less than a year and a half. According to preliminary results, Prime Minister Albin Kurti’s Vetëvendosje movement once again took first place, garnering about 43% of the vote.
In second place is the Democratic Party of Kosovo with approximately 21%, followed by the Democratic League of Kosovo with about 18%. The “Serbian List,” the main party of Kosovo Serbs, received about 6.4% of the vote, according to Democracy in Action projections. Voter turnout was low—less than 37%—indicating voter fatigue from constant elections and a protracted political crisis.
The main problem for Kurti is that his victory does not give him a stable majority. To form a government, he will again have to seek partners or negotiate with the opposition. Therefore, the elections may not resolve the main issue—the creation of stable institutions and a way out of the political impasse.
For Serbia, these elections are important primarily because of Kurti’s stance on the dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina. His party traditionally takes a hard line and is not prepared to make significant concessions to Serbia. This means that rapid progress in EU-mediated negotiations is unlikely.
A separate issue is the representation of the Serbian community. If the “Serbian List” maintains its dominance among Serbian parties, Belgrade will continue to have an important political channel of influence in northern Kosovo and within Pristina’s institutions. But given Kurti’s hardline stance, this is unlikely to quickly reduce tensions.
For the region, this is also an economic issue. Political instability in Pristina is hindering reforms, obstructing access to international financing, and complicating the European agenda. And for Serbia, there remains an additional pressure from Brussels, which will continue to link Belgrade’s progress toward the EU with the normalization of relations with Pristina.
It is also important to keep the international context in mind. Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008, but its statehood remains partially recognized. Kosovo is not a member of the UN. Many countries do not recognize Kosovo’s independence, including Serbia, Russia, China, Ukraine, and Spain.
Therefore, the new elections in Pristina are not just a matter of Kosovo’s domestic politics. They are part of a broader Balkan issue where the interests of Serbia, the EU, the US, Russia, China, and countries that do not recognize Kosovo’s independence intersect.
https://t.me/relocationrs/2984
According to Serbian Economist, fragments of an ancient landmass that geologists call Greater Adria lie beneath the territories of Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and other countries in Southern Europe, Nova reports, citing research by an international group of scientists.
Geologists view Greater Adria as an ancient continental block roughly the size of Greenland. It broke away from the supercontinent Gondwana, drifted northward for tens of millions of years, and then collided with Europe. As a result, most of this landmass was subducted into the Earth’s mantle, while individual fragments were “scraped off” and incorporated into the mountain systems of Southern Europe.
According to the reconstruction, remnants of Greater Adria can be found today in the geological structures of Italy, Greece, Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Albania, as well as in other parts of the Mediterranean. This does not refer to a single, intact continent beneath the Balkans, but rather to fragments of the ancient continental crust that have been reshaped by the movement of lithospheric plates.
A key study on this topic was published in 2019 in the journal Gondwana Research. Scientists reconstructed the tectonic history of the Mediterranean region over the past 240 million years using paleomagnetic data, information on fault movement, and computer models of plate tectonics. The researchers analyzed data from thousands of geological sites in Southern Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East.
According to this reconstruction, Greater Adria began to separate from the northern part of Gondwana about 240 million years ago. It later drifted northward and collided with the southern edge of Europe approximately 120–100 million years ago. During the collision, a significant portion of the massif was subducted beneath Europe, while the upper layers were crumpled, uplifted, and incorporated into the region’s mountain belts.
It is this process that is associated with the formation of a number of mountain systems in Southern Europe and the Mediterranean, including parts of the Alps, the Apennines, the Dinaric Alps, the Balkan Mountains, Greece, and Turkey.
Similar “lost” or partially submerged continental blocks are known in other regions of the world as well. One of the most famous examples is Zealandia—a largely submerged continental mass of which New Zealand and New Caledonia are part.
Greater Adria became known to the general public following a 2019 publication, although individual fragments of its geological history had been studied for decades.
https://t.me/relocationrs/2976
According to Serbian Economist, Hungarian low-cost carrier Wizz Air has stated that changes to Serbian aviation legislation could force the company to close its Belgrade hub as early as November 2026.
The carrier believes that the new rules could restrict competition in favor of Air Serbia and contradict Serbia’s obligations within the European Common Aviation Area.
Wizz Air has been operating in Serbia since 2010. According to the company, it has carried over 14 million passengers during this time and currently serves 29 routes to 26 European cities. If the base is closed, more than 150 jobs in aviation and related jobs in tourism, the hotel industry, and airport services will be at risk.
The Serbian aviation regulator rejects the allegations. The Directorate of Civil Aviation of Serbia states that no airline is prohibited from operating flights between Serbia and the EU, and that the new rules merely clarify the regulatory framework and apply equally to all carriers.
https://t.me/relocationrs/2960
According to Serbian Economist, Denmark’s Penning has acquired the wealth management business from the Lithuanian crypto investment platform Veli, which was founded by a Serbian team. The deal specifically concerns the wealth management division, not the entire Veli company.
Veli’s European clients are scheduled to be migrated to the new Penning Wealth platform by the end of June 2026. Penning positions the deal as a step toward creating a MiCA-compliant platform for long-term investors in digital assets.
Veli is a crypto investment platform for long-term investors and financial advisors. The company was founded by a Serbian team with experience in institutional business, crypto investments, and portfolio management.
Penning is a Danish crypto service provider and one of the first players in Denmark to obtain a license under MiCA regulations. Following the deal, Veli will operate as a separate wealth management division of Penning.
