Serbian Far-Right Group to Hold Pro-Russia Rally

The People’s Patrols combine Serbian nationalism with xenophobia and hostility to the government. Photo: Marija Vucic

The People’s Patrols, an organisation of right-wing extremists which started out as a group hostile to the migrants and refugees crossing Serbia on route to Western Europe, and which has also campaigned against COVID-19 vaccinations, said it plans to hold a protest in support of Russia in Belgrade on Friday.

“We want to support the Russian and Belarusian people in the fight against the Nazi and pro-Western government in Kyiv,” the group wrote on its Instagram page. Ukraine’s President Volodymy Zelensky is Jewish and has dismissed allegations that he heads a Nazi administration as absurd.

The People’s Patrols also accused the West of hypocrisy over the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia in 1999 and over the Azov Battalion, an ultranationalist volunteer militia with neo-Nazi links that was incorporated into Ukraine’s National Guard in 2014.

The far-right group claimed that innocent Russian civilians were killed during fighting in Ukraine in 2014, when Russia sponsored armed separatists in the eastern Donbas region and annexed Crimea.

“Since the Western Nazis are not interested in this, it is logical that the Russian and Belarusian people will take justice into their own hands,” it said.

The group also urged Serbs to “solve the current situation in our holy land of Kosovo and Metohija”, referring to the former Serbian province that proclaimed independence in 2008.

BIRN contacted the Serbian Interior Ministry to ask whether the protest has been officially registered, and for details of its official organisers, but had not received an answer by time of publication.

The People’s Patrols group was formed several years ago and acts as a xenophobic vigilante organisation armed with pepper spray which has reportedly assaulted migrants “in self-defence” before handing them over to the police.

Many of the group were previously members of other far right groups, including Zavetnici (Oathkeepers) which later became an official political party, standing in elections with little success.

The People’s Patrols group now presents itself as the only true far-right organisation in Serbia, insisting that many other far-right organisations have ended up under the control of the ruling Progressive Party, which has caused them to moderate their radical views.

However, People’s Patrols rallies have so far never managed to gather more than several hundred attendees, despite the group’s Facebook page having more than 70,000 followers.

Serbian far-right organisations have for decades been supportive of Orthodox Russia, citing historical and religious ties.