Russia recruited spies from Serbia

Russia uses its influence in Serbia in attempts to destabilize and interfere in the affairs of neighboring sovereign states

A group from Serbia carried out disturbances in France and Germany on the orders of a Russian intelligence service. Authorities in Belgrade, however, have not publicly named the Russian service as the organizer of a series of racist actions in Paris and Berlin during the spring and summer of 2025.

RFE/RL obtained verdicts from the Higher Court in Smederevo against three Serbian citizens convicted of espionage and racial discrimination. Together with eight other suspects from Serbia, they were arrested at the end of September 2025. Almost four months later, at the end of December 2025, the three men reached plea agreements and were sentenced to between six months and one and a half years of house arrest. The other eight suspects are not in custody.

The verdicts state that the group’s actions targeted Jewish and Muslim religious communities in order to increase tensions in Germany and France. Orders, instructions, and funding for the operations were provided by “structures of the intelligence service of the Russian Federation.” However, the documents provide no further details about which members of the Russian intelligence service organized the group.

Before the arrests and court proceedings in Serbia, the cases had already been investigated by French and German authorities. The verdicts describe four racist operations carried out in France and Germany. The group was responsible, among other things, for pouring green paint on the Holocaust Museum and three synagogues in Paris, as well as placing pig heads in front of nine mosques in the city. In central Berlin, near the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, they placed plastic skeletons. According to the verdicts, the goal was to “incite religious and national hostility,” particularly between Jewish and Muslim communities, and to “destabilize conditions” in both Germany and France.

In addition to travel expenses being covered, including car rentals, bus and plane tickets, and hotel accommodation, group members were promised payment for each completed “job” of 500, 1,000, or 1,500 euros. The group was active between April and September 2025.

Tensions between the EU and Russia have persisted since the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and the Western sanctions imposed on the Kremlin.

The town of Velika Plana, with about 15,000 inhabitants, was the location where Russian services recruited Serbian citizens during 2025 for operations in Germany and France. All three individuals convicted of espionage and racial discrimination live in this town in central Serbia, about 90 kilometers from Belgrade. They were described as “members of a group” that assisted a foreign intelligence service and incited hatred, discrimination, and violence in Paris and Berlin. However, the verdicts do not specify the exact number of members in the group.

According to the verdicts, the group was organized by a Serbian citizen whose name is also redacted. He is mentioned as an organizer together with an unidentified person referred to by the nickname “Hunter.” The documents from the Higher Court in Smederevo contain no further details about “Hunter.”

The two organizers allegedly received instructions from Russian intelligence officers. The first operation took place in April 2025 when group members traveled to Paris. According to one verdict, they placed stickers with genocidal content targeting Armenians and Muslims.

Between 600 and 700 stickers featuring a flower symbol and the message “I remember and demand” in English and Armenian were placed across Paris, including near the Arc de Triomphe and in the 18th arrondissement, an area with a significant Muslim population.

The operation was carried out on April 24, the day commemorating the suffering of the Armenian people, with the aim of provoking religious and national tensions and destabilizing the situation in Paris and France. After completing the operation, the group members were required to photograph the locations where the stickers had been placed. For this task, they were promised 500 euros.

In May 2025, Paris hosted the UEFA Champions League final. Ahead of the match between Paris Saint-Germain and Inter Milan on May 31, the group from Serbia traveled to the French capital using rental cars and commercial flights. Their goal was to destabilize ethnic and religious relations in France. According to the verdict, the Champions League final was chosen as the date for the operation because a “large number of people were expected on the streets of Paris.”

The suspects split into two groups and used green paint to deface inscriptions and spray buildings, including synagogues, Jewish restaurants, and the Holocaust Museum. They were promised 1,000 euros for the operation.

In July 2025, group members traveled to Germany on the orders of Russian intelligence structures. On July 31, they placed five plastic skeletons encased in concrete in plastic buckets near the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, close to the memorial dedicated to the murdered Jews of Europe. The aim was to “destabilize ethnic and political conditions” in Germany.

In September 2025, several members of the group again traveled to Paris on the orders of Russian intelligence structures. They placed severed pig heads in front of nine mosques and sprayed graffiti reading “10 September” ahead of mass protests. The goal was again to incite racial and religious hostility.

Large protests were held in Paris and other French cities on September 10 against budget cuts and government austerity measures under the slogan “block everything.” The group carried out the action on September 9 and then returned to Serbia. Along with travel and accommodation costs, they were promised 1,500 euros.

A statement by Serbia’s Interior Ministry in September 2025 said the group responsible for incidents in Germany and France had 14 members, with one person still on the run. The identity of the person known as “Hunter,” who organized the group, remains unknown. The verdicts also provide no details about how Russian services recruited the group or how many Russian intelligence officers were involved.

Although Serbian officials have not publicly named a Russian service as the organizer, French and German investigators identified its role. Part of the group from Serbia involved in racist actions was detained in France as early as late May, according to French media. They were identified through surveillance camera footage and phone records.

Official contacts between Belgrade and Moscow have continued even four years after the war began, despite calls from the European Union and Washington, DC, for Serbia to distance itself from Russia.

The two countries also cooperate in intelligence matters related to combating so-called “color revolutions,” a term used by the Kremlin to describe the overthrow of authoritarian regimes in former Soviet republics.

While facing mass protests in Serbia since November 2024 and accusations of corruption from thousands of demonstrators, Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić claimed that there was an attempt to carry out a “color revolution.”

Russia and Serbia have also been linked in another investigation, this time in Moldova. In September 2025, Moldovan police released a video claiming to show “military camps in Serbia organized by the Russian secret service.” More than 70 people were detained in Moldova as part of the investigation, with most suspected of having been trained in Serbia. They were accused of preparing mass unrest and destabilization in Moldova ahead of parliamentary elections held on September 28.

The pro-European ruling party won a clear majority, defeating the pro-Russian bloc, and the vote passed without major incidents. Russia denied interfering in the election process, while Moldova accused Moscow of conducting a hybrid war that included disinformation campaigns and the illegal financing of pro-Russian parties.

Two days before the vote in Moldova, Serbia detained two individuals suspected of organizing combat-tactical training for clashes with Moldovan police in the event of unrest on election day.

According to Serbian police, the training took place at a hospitality facility near Loznica in western Serbia and involved between 150 and 170 citizens of Moldova and Romania. The case in Serbia is still under investigation, and the two suspects are not in custody.

Vučić later said authorities had determined that three Russian citizens had been present at the camp. However, he did not link the Russian intelligence services to the camp. Russia is not mentioned in official statements by Serbian police or prosecutors.

In a 2023 report, the European Parliament concluded that Russia uses its influence in Serbia in attempts to destabilize and interfere in the affairs of neighboring sovereign states. Earlier, in 2019, the U.S. State Department described Serbia, a candidate for EU membership, as the country with the “most permissive environment” for Russian influence in the Western Balkans.