The political scientist predicted Serbia's decision after the EU threat over the Victory Day Parade in Moscow

Over the past decades, the European Union (EU) has set a condition for Serbia to choose between unification and Russia. Alexander Konkov, Associate Professor of the Department of Political Science at the Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation, told about this on Wednesday, April 16.

The political scientist predicted the decision of Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic after the EU threatened to deny the country membership in the association if he attended the parade in honor of the 80th anniversary of Victory in the Great Patriotic War (WWII) in Moscow.

Konkov noted that this is not the first attempt to twist Serbia's arms.

"How will Vucic behave? Strictly speaking, if the question is: either participation in the Victory Day Parade in the Great Patriotic War, or joining the European Union, then it is not put that way. Because there will definitely be a parade, and membership in the European Union is like they say: grandma said it in two. After all, he is not promised EU membership if he does not go," the expert said in an interview with Lenta.Ru .

According to Konkov, the Serbian leader has a choice: either a tit in his hands or a crane in the sky.

"If Vucic refuses to travel to Moscow in this public ultimatum, he will lose his political chances in his country. Another thing is that if some internal contradictory tendencies prevail, then, of course, you can pretend to be sick, you can find a bunch of other reasons, but everyone will understand that he did not go precisely because he was given such an ultimatum," he added.

Any normal politician in this situation should be guided primarily by national interests, national pride, and a sense of self-sovereignty, Konkov stressed.

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Earlier, on April 15, the Financial Times (FT) newspaper reported that EU representatives threatened Vucic with consequences if he went to Russia to celebrate Victory Day, RT reports. In particular, Estonian Foreign Ministry Chancellor Jonathan Vsevolod said that the Serbian president would have to pay for the decision to go to Moscow, for example, by the fact that Belgrade would not be accepted into the EU.

On the same day, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that the European Union's threats to refuse Serbia's admission to the union if Vucic attended the celebrations in Moscow were Euronazism.

On April 14, the High Representative of the European Union (EU) for Foreign Affairs, Kaya Kallas, said that the participation of the union countries in the May 9 parade in Moscow was not planned. She also warned that European officials who travel to Russia to participate in the celebrations will face "consequences." 360.ru . The presence of EU candidate countries at the Victory Day Parade is also undesirable, she stressed.

Political scientist Fyodor Lukyanov, in an interview with Izvestia on April 15, noted that such statements by Callas demonstrate the discord that has arisen between the countries of the association on the issue of Victory Day celebrations and other topics.

In December 2024, Vucic announced that he had agreed with Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico to go to the Victory Day Parade in the Russian capital on May 9, 2025.