Russia’s Wagner Group 'recruits Serbian nationalists' to fight in Ukraine
US warns Belgrade to clamp down on 'illegal activity' by Kremlin-linked group
Russia’s Wagner Group is recruiting Serbian nationalists to fight as mercenaries in Ukraine, the US has said, highlighting the Kremlin’s efforts to meddle in the Balkans.
On a trip to Belgrade, Derek Chollet, the US State Department Counselor, said that he had warned the Serbian government to clamp down on “illegal activity” by Kremlin-linked Wagner.
“Wagner Group is seeking to recruit soldiers from Serbia and elsewhere and that’s something we think cannot stand,” he said on Thursday.
The US warning follows a trip by a Serbian nationalist group called People Patrol to Wagner’s corporate headquarters in St Petersburg in November. There they posed holding a flag which proclaimed that Ukraine’s Donbas region was part of Russia and that Kosovo was part of Serbia.
Moscow supports Serbia’s refusal to accept Kosovo as an independent state. Kosovo declared independence in 2008, nine years after Nato bombing of Belgrade forced an end to a war.
Tension between Serbs living in north Kosovo and ethnic Albanians has spiked. Analysts have said that Russia is funding this tension and wants to spread disharmony inside Europe.
Mr Chollet said that he was worried that the Serbian government wasn’t taking the Wagner recruitment drive seriously enough.
“I don’t know if there are concerns (in Serbia), we talked about our concerns and we are looking forward to working with the government here in Belgrade and elsewhere where Wagner is active to put an end to their activities,” he said.
The Serbian government hasn’t commented.
Wagner group boasts about Belgrade office
Towards the end of last year, RT, one of the main Kremlin propaganda channels, set up a Serbian-language channel specifically to pump pro-Russia messages into the country.
RT’s Serbian channel has also carried Wagner recruitment adverts and Wagner has boasted that it has opened an office in Belgrade.
The Kremlin had previously considered Wagner to be a deniable asset but this year it allowed the group to launch a major recruitment drive across Russia and in its prisons.
Before the war in Ukraine, Wagner’s main operations had focused on Syria, Libya and other African states. Wagner has been accused of war crimes, including executing people with sledgehammers.