The mystery of Serbian state funding for the Serbo-Russian Center in Niš

Western countries have long expressed suspicion that the Center may be an attempt to establish an intelligence or military base, pointing in particular to its proximity to a NATO military base in Kosova

Over the fourteen years of its existence, Serbian authorities have failed to provide transparency about how the Serbo-Russian Humanitarian Center in Niš is funded.

While the Center itself, Serbian institutions, and the Russian Embassy in Belgrade have not responded to inquiries, Radio Free Europe found that the Serbo-Russian Center appears on the list of beneficiaries receiving funds from Serbia’s state budget.

The Center is included in the 2025 list of budget beneficiaries published by the Treasury Directorate of Serbia’s Ministry of Finance. There is no publicly available information on how much money has been transferred to the Center, and the responsible ministries have refused to disclose these figures. Since January 2014, the Center has maintained an active dinar account with the Treasury Directorate, used specifically for the transfer of state budget funds.

Located in Niš, near Serbia’s second-largest airport, the Serbo-Russian Center has been described in Moscow as “the most important in the Balkans” for responding to emergencies and natural disasters.

Western countries, however, have long expressed suspicion that the Center may be an attempt to establish an intelligence or military base, pointing in particular to its proximity to a NATO military base in Kosova. Serbian opposition parties have now formally called for the Center’s closure.

At the end of December, several pro-European opposition MPs submitted a request to Parliament seeking to repeal the intergovernmental agreement between Serbia and Russia under which the Center was established in 2012.

It remains unclear whether the Serbian opposition’s proposal will be placed on the parliamentary agenda. That decision lies with the ruling majority in Belgrade.

According to publicly available data, the Serbo-Russian Humanitarian Center in Serbia has both an identification number and a tax number.

Under the intergovernmental agreement, it should have been registered as a non-profit humanitarian intergovernmental organization. However, it is unknown whether this is actually the case. Under this name, the Center does not appear in the database of Serbia’s Business Registers Agency (APR), where all commercial entities in Serbia are registered.

Responsibility for the Center lies with Serbia’s Ministry of the Interior and Russia’s Ministry for Civil Defense and Emergency Situations. The Center was established with funds from both the Russian and Serbian state budgets. Serbia financed the construction of the building complex with 1.8 million US dollars. At the time, the Center claimed that the Russian side had invested 41 million dollars.

The agreement allows the Center’s activities to be financed through state budgets, grants and donations, or income generated by services it provides.

Data from the National Bank’s account registry show that the Center opened 11 foreign-currency accounts and five dinar accounts on the same day, 15 February 2023, at the private AIK Bank. All accounts remain active.

In late September 2025, a paramilitary camp was discovered in western Serbia near Loznica, where foreign nationals were allegedly being trained to provoke unrest in Moldova. At the time, police arrested two Serbian citizens, while authorities in Belgrade did not mention Russia as the organizer, despite claims from Moldova.

Particular attention has been drawn to Russia’s request that Serbia grant diplomatic status to the Center’s staff. Such special status would entail privileges including free movement not only within Serbia but across the region, as well as immunity in the event of criminal offenses committed on Serbian territory.

Members of the Center also participated in training exercises in Russia and Belarus over the past two years, including the large-scale “Safe Arctic” exercise held in Russia’s Arctic region in late January 2025. The exercise, involving testing and demonstration of new equipment, took place amid rising risks of military confrontation between Russia and the West in this strategically important area.

Delegations from Serbia’s Ministry of the Interior and Russia’s Ministry for Emergency Situations, led by senior Russian officials, have visited the Center.

In 2025, the Center opened a new training ground for firefighters and rescuers. The cost and funding sources for this facility remain unknown.

Among the Center’s emergency responses were the major wildfires that struck southern and central Serbia last summer. Hundreds of fires broke out, with no fatalities, but significant material damage occurred. Hundreds of buildings were destroyed and thousands of hectares of agricultural land burned. According to its website, the Serbo-Russian Humanitarian Center deployed several vehicles to fight fires in Niš, Leskovac, Pirot, Vranje, Prokuplje, and Kuršumlija at the request of Serbia’s Ministry of the Interior.

In early 2026, heavy snowfall led to states of emergency being declared in 11 Serbian municipalities, leaving thousands without electricity. Residents also faced problems with heating, water supply, mobile phone coverage, and blocked roads. According to its website, the Center temporarily provided six generators to the municipality of Majdanpek in eastern Serbia.

In addition to calling for the Center’s closure, the opposition is demanding that funds be redirected toward strengthening domestic civil protection capacities and educating citizens.

According to the Center’s 2025 report, more than 1,200 participants passed through its programs that year.

Instructors, many from the academy of Russia’s Ministry for Civil Defense, trained them in prevention, response, and emergency management. Most participants were members of the Emergency Situations Sector of Serbia’s Ministry of the Interior.

Firefighting units from Serbia’s Oil Industry (NIS), which has been under US sanctions since January 2025 due to Russian ownership, were also trained at the Center. Members of the Civil Protection Administration of Republika Srpska in Bosnia and Herzegovina also took part, as did firefighters from Montenegro during a joint exercise in Tivat in June 2025.

Western criticism throughout the Center’s existence has focused on concerns that it could function as a branch of Kremlin intelligence operations and as Russia’s response to EU and NATO enlargement in the Western Balkans.

In June 2017, then senior US State Department official Hoyt Brian Yee said Washington was concerned about the construction of the Russian Center in Serbia and the possible special status of its staff.

“We do not believe Russia has good intentions when it comes to helping the Balkans move toward the EU,” Yee said.

He added that the Center in Niš, near the border with Kosova, where the US has about 600 troops and NATO has around 4,000 peacekeepers, was not a positive development.

“It is essential, and this is a view we share with the Serbian government, that Serbia maintain full control over its territory and everything on it. If it allows Russia to establish an intelligence center, it will lose control over part of its territory,” he warned.

The European Union has repeatedly asked what the Serbo-Russian Humanitarian Center in Niš actually does. Brussels emphasized that Serbian authorities must ensure the Center does not “duplicate the role of the EU Emergency Response Coordination Centre.”

Since the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Western countries have urged Belgrade to impose sanctions on Moscow, a step Serbia has refused to take. Beyond warnings that it has not aligned with EU restrictive measures, Brussels has noted that Serbia has intensified high-level bilateral contacts with Moscow, raising questions about its strategic orientation.

Armenia is another country where Moscow has operated such centers over the past decade. The Russian-Armenian Humanitarian Response Center has signed cooperation agreements with the Niš Center, including reciprocal visits and staff training. In 2025, members of the Serbo-Russian Center served as observers at an exercise in Yerevan involving firefighter-rescuers from Russia, Belarus, Algeria, Bahrain, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Cyprus, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Malaysia, and Saudi Arabia.