Original article (in Serbian) was published on 23/02/2022
“Putin decided”, “Putin checkmated Ukraine”, “Putin shocked the West”, “Putin brought freedom to Donbas”. On the front pages of the tabloids, the Russian president is still presented as a strong leader who opposes the globalist West with radical but fair measures. While Aleksandar Vucic states that Serbia must preserve its neutral status in the escalating Russian-Ukrainian conflict, pro-regime tabloids openly side with Russia.
Tensions between Russia and Ukraine, which have been going on for years, have escalated into a growing conflict in recent days after Putin – opposing Ukraine’s entry into NATO – began deploying Russian troops along the border. A few days ago, the situation became more complicated after the Russian recognition of Donetsk and Luhansk – the regions that declared independence from Ukraine in 2014. Putin and the leaders of these self-proclaimed republics signed an agreement on military cooperation, thus allowing Russia to send its military troops there.
The complex situation in eastern Ukraine raises many questions – will there be a war, what will be the economic consequences of the sanctions that the West imposes on Russia, and how will Serbia position itself in the whole situation? There is also the issue of double standards of the international community regarding the recognition of Kosovo and denial of independence of self-proclaimed Ukrainian republics, the issue of Russian denial of Ukrainian sovereignty, but most importantly – what consequences will this conflict have on ordinary citizens.
Instead of providing analytical answers to these and many other questions, tabloids in Serbia are reaching for a simplified, black-and-white picture of the world. On the front pages these days, readers have the opportunity to see a series of hysterical announcements of war, followed by a line of enthusiasm for Putin’s “fair” actions, but also unfounded headlines such as “Ukraine invaded Russia”, as presented by Informer.
According to the tabloids, the Russian-Ukrainian conflict looks like this: the unscrupulous West is holding Ukraine under its paw, whose “puppet government” wants to join NATO. A right-minded Putin, who defends the interests of his country and all non-NATO countries, does not allow that. The West and the regime inciting war in Ukraine have persistently provoked and tested Putin’s patience in the past, trying to “drag him into armed conflict”, but Putin resisted “calling on the West to come to its senses”.
However, then the “provocations” went so far that in the end, “Ukraine attacked Russia”, according to Informer.
The Russian authorities announced that their army killed five Ukrainian soldiers who allegedly crossed into Russian territory. According to the Guardian, the Ukrainian authorities denied it. In the meantime, the United States also announced that this is disinformation, and that it was “released” from the Russian side to justify the Russian aggression. Informer provided denial of this claim in a few sentences at the bottom of the page.
After this unconfirmed “Ukrainian aggression”, Putin, according to our tabloids, “decided” – “to soothe the incitement regime in Ukraine” by recognizing the independence of Donetsk and Luhansk and announcing that he would send “peacekeepers” there, which “surprised” and “shocked” everyone.
As Informer writes, the Ukrainians “calmed down” and “dropped the ball”, and the politicians from the West “got angry”. In Alo’s interpretation, the West was surprised and “lukewarm” in its reactions – they announced fierce responses to the Russian recognition of the self-proclaimed republics and in the end, “did almost nothing”. Srpski telegraf (The Serbian Telegraph) shares a similar attitude, saying that “Biden must not attack Putin.” In the black-and-white world of these tabloids, Putin is presented as determined and almighty. At the same time, the West is evil and unscrupulous, but timid and must not challenge Putin’s strength.
What the West – which opposes the independence of these self-proclaimed republics and the announcements of a “peace mission” – sees as an act of aggression, domestic tabloids see differently – as ensuring peace. Today’s edition of Objektiv even writes that “Putin brought freedom to Donbas”.
Putin’s statements that Ukraine is an artificial creation that has always belonged to Russia are shared without any critical distance, and recognition of Donetsk and Luhansk by Russia is reported in the same biased way. Our tabloids see Putin’s open claims to Ukrainian territories as the satisfaction of justice – just as the West “kidnapped” Kosovo from Serbia, so Putin “tore” Ukraine, writes the Serbian Telegraph.
This tabloid went the furthest in showing its bias and enthusiasm for Putin’s actions – yesterday’s issue published the following text “Putin sends an army to unite Serbia and Srpska” as soon as he “solves the problem with Ukraine”. They say that this is “claimed by the British”.
However, this is a far too loose and biased interpretation of the statement of the British Minister of Foreign Affairs Liz Truss, who said that Putin will not stand by Ukraine and that if he is not stopped in his attempts to make “Greater Russia” as it existed before the collapse of the USSR, he will reach out to other countries.
“The Baltic countries are at risk. The Western Balkans as well”, said Truss, and the Serbian Telegraph made this into the following headline “Putin is sending an army to unite Serbia and Srpska”.
Vucic’s “criticism” of the tabloids
In parallel with the tabloids taking side with Russia, Vucic claims that he wants Serbia to remain as neutral as possible in this conflict.
“(Our position is not easy) (…) After President Putin’s decision, the political pressure on Serbia will be much greater (…). What I experienced in the previous three days and what I expect to follow in the political sense will not be an easy period for Serbia”, said Vucic and added that “our policy is directed towards the EU, but without spoiling relations with Russia and China”.
However, he refused to condemn Russia’s recognition of the two self-proclaimed republics. He said he would do so if the Ukrainian president were the first to condemn NATO’s aggression against Serbia in 1999.
Noting that it is vital that “we try to be calm and get through the world crisis without scratches”, Vucic commented on the writing of pro-regime tabloids, saying that we are “harming ourselves”.
“When you look at our headlines, you see that in 80 percent of the media there is no objectivity, but those 80 percent of the media are on the Russian side, and the remaining 20 percent are a priori against the Russians”, he said.
Are the tabloids completely deaf to Vucic’s policy, which they regularly obey in their reports? In its analysis, Deutsche Welle implies that Vucic’s criticism of media bias is not sincere.
“Vucic is too experienced to allow himself cheap slips on the international scene, so he leaves the enthusiasm for the Russian military action to the tabloids”, writes Deutsche Welle.
In recent months, the tabloids have repeatedly “announced” war between Russia and Ukraine, and in those announcements, Ukraine and the West were exclusively presented as the bad guys, and Russia and Putin as the good guys. An analysis of this reporting, conducted by fact-checking websites from the region, can be found here.