Vučić Out, Students In: Still, No Sanctions Against Russia

Serbia’s Student List won the Oct. 25 parliamentary election, ending 14 years of what many described as Serbian leader Aleksandar Vučić’s dictatorship.

Tens of thousands of people in Serbia and abroad rallied behind the list, made up of students, professors and doctors, hoping to free the country from corruption and political pressure on its institutions. The country secured a historic win in its highest turnout of 70%, the biggest Serbia has seen in nearly three decades.

Yet even as the result brings Serbia a step closer to the European Union, the list has said it will not impose sanctions on Russia, despite Vučić’s claims that it would do so within months.

Speaking to RT Balkan, a Serbian-language broadcaster run by the Russian state-owned network RT (formerly Russia Today), Professor Jovo Bakić of the Student List claimed that Belgrade respects Russia, “both as a great power and as our historically important partner, and in many cases even our protector,” adding that “there will be no changes.”

He claimed that sanctions from such a small country would essentially change nothing for Moscow, since even the entire EU had failed to harm it.

However, the move would damage bilateral relations, he said, adding that Serbia knows what “kind of misery that [sanctions] is,” having lived through UN sanctions during the 1990s.

“I said this during the election campaign, and I’m saying it after the elections,” Bakić said, echoing the Student List’s earlier position.

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“The Republic of Serbia will retain its principled stance on not introducing restrictive measures toward the Russian Federation,” the list previously said in a statement on Sept. 30.

With the list holding an absolute majority of nearly 140 seats, the next step is a presidential election, which Serbia’s constitution requires by Dec. 26. Until then, Ana Brnabić of the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS), closely linked to Vučić, is serving as acting president.

Vučić concedes, but vows to fight back

Vučić conceded defeat, saying his coalition, United Serbia, won 105 seats.

The name of his coalition closely echoes United Russia, which won the Sept. 18-20 State Duma elections, held in Russia and occupied territories of Ukraine, without the main election-monitoring body of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE).

The same Duma elections that the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) deemed illegitimate earlier this month.

His concession quickly proved to be anything but a surrender. He claimed that “you will see, in six months, no one will be happy and joyful anymore,” adding that “from tonight, we start preparing. We are going to defeat them.”

He also blamed foreign forces for his defeat, echoing Russia’s similar hostile rhetoric towards the West.

“What brought us down is this verified revolution, which they carried out with direct support from various European countries, and the deep American state, the one against [US] President [Donald] Trump,” Vučić said.

“I congratulate them, even though they are just executors of work. Executors of dirty work, which someone else designed to bring down a sovereign country. For a moment you have succeeded. For how long, we shall see,” he continued, as if years of intense public frustration with corruption had not been enough to produce such a result.

From a collapsed canopy to a new regime

The Student List grew out of the Nov. 1, 2024, collapse of the railway station canopy in Novi Sad, north of Belgrade, which killed 16 people.

Four children were killed as well, with the youngest victim aged 5.

The tragedy sparked mass protests across Serbia, which escalated over Vučić’s refusal to accept responsibility and the use of a sound cannon against the students, a high-frequency weapon that causes disorientation, nausea and panic.

The movement eventually formed its own list, led by Novi Sad cardiologist Ilija Srdanović.

Its program, the “Student Plan,” has 11 points in three sections, aiming not just to change the people that hold power, but to dismantle decades of systemic corruption.

“Serbia or the Mafia” pledges an independent anti-corruption police unit, a purge of Interior Ministry officers tied to organized crime or the protest crackdowns, confiscation of illegally acquired assets, audits of opaque state projects and an end to political control over the media regulator and public broadcaster RTS.

“Knowledge Is Power” promises merit-based public hiring, free textbooks for all primary and secondary students and support for startups, entrepreneurs and farmers to move Serbia beyond a cheap-labor economy.

“Serbia Grows With Us” would cap fixed-term employment at 12 months instead of 24, curb the import lobby’s grip on food prices, offer affordable housing to young families and essential workers, lower medicine prices and reopen rural clinics.

Vučić informed Putin about his resignation

Vučić, first elected president in 2017 and re-elected in 2022, signed his resignation live on television on Sept. 26, cutting his final term short by eight months.

Following months of what could be described as world’s biggest anti-government protests, he stepped down to campaign “as an ordinary citizen,” planning to become prime minister if SNS won.

On the same day of his resignation, Vučić held a telephone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin, during which he emphasized Serbia’s energy partnership with Moscow, while also boasting their 14 year long “friendship.”

In a video address posted on social media, Vučić said that he secured a “good and low gas price” of €318 (roughly $361) per 1,000 cubic meters (264.172 gallons), far below the market rate of €868 (987) at the time.

Currently, Serbia remains one of the few European countries that have not joined EU sanctions on Russia, and it continues to import discounted Russian gas and oil.

Vučić has long insisted no sanctions would be introduced while he was in power. On election night, he claimed the students would impose them by March or April, something the list had ruled out a month earlier.

A fresh choice ahead

Around the same time of Vučić’s resignation, Russian-state-owned media TASS reported that while analysts expected no major foreign policy shift, a student win could move Serbia closer to Western positions.

Polina Sokolova, a research fellow at the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Institute of World Economy and International Relations, said a Serbian turn against Russia under Western pressure “cannot be excluded.”

According to TASS, this is because European countries, “which have been Ukraine’s main sponsors, do not demonstrate any intention to enter substantive negotiations, taking Russia’s interests into account.” However, EU leaders consistently urge Russia to agree to a ceasefire; it is the Kremlin that has rebuffed every such proposal so far.

The argument mirrors Vučić’s own claim about “dirty work” designed abroad.

However, despite Vučić’s decades-long ties to Moscow, Serbia has backed Ukraine on several main issues, including territorial integrity on Crimea and Donbas. Belgrade has also provided Kyiv with non-military assistance throughout the war, which has drawn sharp criticism from Russia.

Similarly, Vučić showed support to Kyiv by attending the Carpathian Eight (C8) initiative, launched by President Volodymyr Zelensky on Sept. 18 in Bukovel, western Ukraine.

“We have much to offer - from railway lines and roads to more open borders,” Vučić said, signaling openness to future cooperation with Ukraine across several sectors.

Results welcomed by European leaders

Several European leaders welcomed the result.

“This is clearly a new chapter in the history of the country and its people,” Zelensky said, adding that Ukraine is ready to continue expanding cooperation with Belgrade.

In a telephone call with the Student List, Hungary’s Prime Minister Péter Magyar compared Serbia’s elections to its own, held earlier in the year. “I assured them of Hungary’s support,” he said. “I was delighted to hear how much strength our victory in April had given them during this difficult struggle.”

Meanwhile, President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen said that Europe stands “ready to support reforms on the rule of law, media freedom, the fight against corruption and strong democratic institutions, and to work together to advance Serbia’s future in the European Union.”

While cheap gas could keep Serbia close for now, should the EU membership ever demand a choice, the country may have to take a stronger stance towards Russia.

The question is whether the students, who campaigned for democracy and freedom, will steer Serbia toward European standards or keep up its friendship with Moscow.

The Kremlin urged Serbia’s incoming leaders to maintain ties with Russia, claiming that cooperation “is in Serbia’s interests.”