Russians in Belgrade - How is the city changing?

I love your videos, but in this one you mixed "babe i zabe"....or how you would say apples and oranges. Better let the topic you obviously don't know much about it.....

Ja sam iz Sarajeva i pobjegla sam u Italiju i naucila jezim za dva mjeseca. Cini mi se normalno.
I am from Saranevo and I go in Itali and learn italian in two mants.
Io sono dal Saranevo e sono scapata a Italia e ho imparato italiano in due mesi.

Another thought-provoking video, thanks! My only point of disagreement is your simplified view of Ukrainian history, I'd compare Serbia and Poland. Had our experience been more like theirs, we'd hate Russia too :-)
"These are my people", I absolutely love that.

Breton language, Irish language, Aquitaine, Welsh language were all repressed and actively destroyed by French and English governments. If something is to be considered a language its had to have it's own distinguishable cultural tradition, literature, etc.. French and English governments have been committing cultural genocide over the mentioned (Breton, etc) cultures and languages for centuries and barely anyone talks about it...
Ukrainian language is a dialect of Russian, similarly to Macedonian language being an offshoot of Bulgarian and Serbian (depending on a point of view)

Oooo Belgrade beat, welcome again. Enjoy in Šumadija ❤

I've been to Belgrade twice and spend three weeks each time, most young Serbians speak very good English. I learned a bit of Serbian so I was able to carry a basic conversation. As most countries began to take in immigrants with similar cultures the better off they are, if the immigrants fail to assimilate that's when chaos begins. When in Serbia, do as the Serbians do.

Rusia,iz,not,imperialistic,like,amerikans,and,kanadiens,who,,killd,milions,of,indians,took,the,land,from,them.inclouding,mexikans

You,gona,wotching,scott,riter,or,doglas,mecgregor,my,friend

2,rusians,are,same,as,a,serbians,you,shuld,now,it,before,moving,in.

I have a friend who works as an IT guy for the Government E-Services, he keeps up to date with statistics. He told me that there is around 280 000 Russians, 50 000 Ukrainians and around 15 000 Belarusians in Serbia, that was like the last year, now there is probably more of them.
As a Serbian I very welcome them, as we are loosing 30 000 people every year due to them leaving for EU.

A think one has to consider a lot of Russians who moved to Serbia are introverted IT nerds, not exactly the kind of people who easily start conversations and make new friends

Ukraine wasn't "russified linguistically", parts of Russia were administratively ceded to the region of the Russian Empire named Ukraine and later even to the Ukrainian SSR by Lenin, Stalin and Khrushchev. Adding to this, Serbian people were occupied for thousands of years by the Roman Empire, the Ottoman Empire, the Hapsburg Empire and now the US globalist "I need you to love me" soft power empire and I have to say, baring individuals, no great hatred exists for Italians, Germans or Turks. The kind of hate Ukraine has had for Russians post 1991 break-up, culminating 2014-present (2024) is completely propagator inspired, fed and encouraged by various western covert interests.

Such synthetic hatred is visible in a few other places today. Bosniak and Croat behaviour towards Serbs, in the Baltic states, a seasonally politically convenient Afro-American hatred of White Americans, Taiwanese and HK youth's bizarre alienation of their own people in mainland China, Vietnamese diaspora encouraged and spurred hatred of modern Vietnam and of course a Serbian minority called "druga Srbija".

Organisation and self-determination is encouraged in the groups named above and also discouraged and shunned for other groups that do not serve US globalist "I need you to love me" soft power empire.

They have pretty much the same problem like any other qualified "refugees" here in Sweden we have many Indian programmers who never integrate because they don't really need to.

Nothing specific to Russians.

I am 72 years old Serbian man living in Scandinavia. I am working as a cobol and java developer. I have started to study Russian a year ago. Next year I plan to visit Russia for the first time.

WILL THE WEST destroy ITS OWN POPULATION before it destroys RUSSIA ?

In order to destroy Russia, the West is destroying its own population - decimating it with migrants, forcing LGBTQ++ agenda, spreding narcotics, trafficking of people n organs, mass layoffs, evictions, artificial unemployment and now with inflation that has increased the number of homeless for millions who die while watching how anybody else get help who doesn't need it so desperately like the homeless people.

Western citizens, you should know that
YOU COULD HAD IT ALL WITHOUT FIRED BULLET
but your military-industrial complex want it bloody.

Russia and whole world were americanized.
Everyone idealized USA and that was the ideal moment for USA to unite world with itself at the helm as a leader.

No one had any objections.
No one had anything against the West disposing of the resources of our countries and each of us earning less than Westerners - of course in reasonable measures and not in humiliatingly slavish measures - believing that the West would lead the world to universal prosperity.

USA could have had the world on a plate without a single shot fired years ago - maybe 20 years ago.
If only USA hadn't waged these wars - if only USA continued to maintain at least the minimum of mutual respect in interstate relations.

BUT NOT.
USA decided to listen to the militant elements of its government who were eager for war and blood and who wanted the world as a training ground for their war games - so that those other countries withdrew and closed.
Trust disappeared.

Without any dilemma, world is going to be united in the end, but it will be certainly led by reasonable people - not by war-mongering psychopaths.
The United States is largely losing its leadership role in this.

Material evidences in the form of all those US military bases on the russian border - and material evidences in the form of the whole of Ukraine with thousands of undergound fortifications loaded with weapons - what was it for - to just let rot or to use?
8 years of killing and bombing Ukrainian Russians tells us that they did not intend to stay at the level of deterrence but were seriously working to attack Russia. You know and whole world know that Russia defend own naked survival.

Russians are aware they are fighting for the survival of their country so soldiers are not drunk nor drugged because they know what they are fighting for - unlike the Ukrainian soldiers who have to be drunk n drugged and with zombified brains by the West in order to not realize in what kind of crap their false benefactors have led them into.

And those who had hundreds of billions of dollars to build underground fortifications can't be trusted to haven't that little money to buy bullets to give to Ukrainians to defeat Russia.
WHAT IS THIS FOR?
DOES THE WEST WANT to DEFEAT RUSSIA FOR REAL or DOES WANT TO MAKE SOURCES FOR SUPPLY FOR ITS ORGAN TRAFFICKING CHAINS.?
All these just confirming that the West wants a source of supply for its organ trafficking chains.
And these days Ukrainian mothers are publicly asking where the organs removed from the bodies of their dead sons went.
And why should the Ukrainians pay for all this Western chaos - when the Ukrainians gave their lives without having any of what the West put on Ukrainians bill - so let those who really take everything pay for everything.

Just for these 3 reasons Ukrainians should realized by now,, even the last useful idiot among them, that they had been fooled, deceived and abused in the most horrible way and should strart to hate you from the bottom of their souls - And on which way Ukrainians can publicly and safely articulate that they have realized that they are not fighting for their homeland there, but to help western oligarchs to laundering their dirty money and on the end to surrender all country resources to western oligarchs and on that way turn own country into a colony and all that by fighting as human shield for you westerners to defeat your biggest competitor, Russia ?

How to know is it really Ukrainian or not those on internet who scream that Russia should be defeated ?

Most likely that those aren't Ukrainians - there is a 90% chance that you are actually talking to a German-American or English agent, a live or virtual bot - and only then in 10% you are talking to a real Ukrainian.
Because they pretend that they don't understand - what the Ukrainian people have already experienced while they are dying in the trenches with their relatives, friends, while mothers, wives and children watch their sons, husbands, fathers die - that surely the West did not help them because it really loves them and thinks that they are something higher, better, superior than the Russians - but purely to be their human shield who will die instead of them and on that way they enable the colonization of their country.

But who are those people who were satisfied with western "proofs"? These were Ukrainian and German bots that impersonated people of other nations on the Internet in order to ensure some kind of objectivity and, on the basis of that, to gain mass approval.

Belgrade Beat da li ti voliš Rusiju?

Here's a little food for thought: Serbs do not forget who they are. Russian hegemony over Serbia would not be needed if we became part of their federation. We are two countries from same people. Kind of like British and Americans. To keep it short, due to historical foreign influences, our languages were changed. And languages are fluid naturally, so they change. Russian language was in school curriculums until 90's. Now it's Western languages. Ukraine was influenced beyond recognition and, even worse, estranged from their own culture. So you cannot compare Serbia and Ukraine. I wish all Russians well and may they adapt to Serbia the best they can. It won't be easy but it's possible taking everything into account.

They come involuntarily? This is not true since they were not "forced" to go here but they saw Serbia as a cheaper option where they could get payments in Euros and lets face it avoid possible conscription. One question I asked my Russian friends but and other foreigners who are thinking that here is their life destination and wish to change their passports for Serbian trying to escape their own societies (which I totally understand from their perspective). In case that something happens in Serbia and you get our citizenship are you ready to defend Serbia or work in it no matter what or you will defect from Serbia as soon as you get possibility for this? With citizenship comes up and obligations and those obligations are related to the local culture, tradition, language and other things. Not that I wish any of that but that is also reality on the ground, most of Russians have exactly zero ideas about the issues of the local Serbian population just like when you go to Thailand you are not involved in their society being a western "digital nomad" except enjoying and paying them for renting/taxes. Since I know so many Russians I realized they are totally not aware of the country politics, local issues and how much similar things locals are facing for the stuff on which they are complaining about being bad in Russia. Some of them were shocked once they first encounter issues here from where they were running from their own country. Serbian and Russian mentalities are different in the context of social life (for corruption all South and East Europeans are very similar), this is also the fact why other foreigners are integrating faster, simply all Northern Europeans having this mentality of being suspicious, reserved at first and having a friendships only in their closed circle so for them they really need more time to open comparing to the Southern Europeans which Serbs by mentality actually are. This being said nothing negative, however be aware where you come, how the society is working, what is the local culture and do not think that you come to the fairytale because every country in Europe have their own issues that could be pretty harsh in case if you start wearing the locals shoes.

Yes Belgrade needs a really good shakeup! I like your take on these things. And it's coming from me a Serbian expat now living your home town. All the best also to my Russian and all other expats now living in my home town. Keep us proud all proud and free as Belgraders used to be.

The vast majority of Serbs love Russians and consider them brothers. As far as I know, most of the Russians who came to Serbia are software developers or something from the IT sector. They came for easier work because of the sanctions against Russia.

A jesi li ti progovorio srpski posle toliko godina?

Dobar video. Mislim da i zbog srpske autoritarne politike rusi ne žele da se asimiluju. Pobegli od jednog i došli u sličan sistem.

What a pile of Russophobic crap.

ukranian lang doesnt exist. neither does russian to be honest.
theyre derivatives from serbian. most of european lang are.
belgrade is being disgustingly DESTROYED by dirty investors.
some say israeli are building a lot of buildings here ( so they can transfer here after expelling all of us out of our territory of course) and inflation is going over the roof at this moment.
as for Bg...its in even worse condition if possible then two years ago.

Were Baltic states, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan "russified"? Nope. Some might know Russian but as a second language. Their own languages were strong and well developed. Ukraine never had a strong state before, they were part of someone and at the time they spoke surzhik, it wasn't Ukrainian, it was a mix of everything and of course when you move to a city you learn and study in a more mature developed language. Since surzhik was basically a dialect it naturally lost to a real language. Not to mention South-East of the current Ukraine isn't really historical Ukraine, and these cities were never Ukrainian speaking. During USSR they started promoting and developing Ukrainian language systemizing it etc and yes even doing Ukrainization especially in the early USSR. Now Ukraine being predominantely Russian speaking (~80%) closed Russian schools, the process accelerated after 2014 "revolution of dignity". I think Ukraine is the only country in the world where the language of majority is not even official and kinda banned (you can be fined for using it in certaine cases especially if someome complaines about it). That's one hell of a dignity.

Serbia is still our country. I appreciate your love for your country but we don’t need westerners or Russians creating structure or discipline. That’s not the Serbia we want

Serbia will become Info-Swiss. We have: Russian, Chinese, Japanese, U.S. German, Hindu, Arab, Jewish and a bit more ethnic groups here. I hope this will make Serbians finally closer and we will finally be West to the East, East to the West, North to the South and South to the North. An Inn at the crossroads and not battlefield as b4

Serbians banging on how Russians are brothers , well I can tell you Russians are more similar to northern folks they have nothing in common with Serbs and also Russia , Poland , Czech republic .... even Croatia are cleaner and generally more disciplined

I think the integration or non integration of Russians should be an issue for the Serbian people, not for you. You're just another immigrant. And also there are all kinds of Russians coming to Serbia, not just those who want to avoid conscription. Actually, it would be more logical for such people to look for a western EU country rather than a clearly pro-Russian one like Serbia.

Я организую бесплатные уроки сербского в центре Белграда по пятницам и кроме моих уже друзей и знакомых, никто из русских не отзывается, хотя многие до самого урока спрашивают как добраться до кафе и если урок будет.

Мне кажется дело не в языке, а в внутренней стороне русского человека.

Fun fact: your video about Belgrade girls was the first one I watched when I was researching possibility of relocation to Serbia. Still not there, but we're planning to! BTW we've never been to Pangan, but Samui is our one love!

I think its too early secondly most of them thinking its only temporary .There is mentality difference as well.SERBIA needs gov shake up but then many other countries too.The most important is that you feel welcomed in another country.I am more traditional -I dont like this mambo jumbo of globalization .lets each nation to stay to their own unique values.Tnxs for sharing ur thoughts

Very rational impression. All true. The Russians are cautious because most of them don't like Putin and they know most Serbs support him. This is what I heard from Russians. Theyir self-organisation is very impressive. I like the Russians here, they always bring culture. This is not the first time Serbia experienced a Russian migration. They also came when they were escaping from the Bolsheviks. That was when the first ballet school opened in Serbia.

I think Russians think they are in Serbia temporarily, and hence they stay in their bubble. I wish they stayed forever, but I understand completely they want to go back home. Through my grandmother, I am 1/4 russian, and I have to say that is my favorite part of the family.

Perhaps it would be best for you (and for us as well) to leave Serbia. It will be easier for you to integrate into society, learn language, etc... 99% of Russians came to Serbia because the EU banned Russians from entering. As soon as they allow entry, you will leave on the first plane, hopefully in one direction.

I am from Novi Sad and see many Russians here for the last 3 years even longer. My friend Andey came 2,5 years ago and started to learn Serbian immediately after he landed here. He speaks fluent Serbian and now he is very familiar with Serbian culture, music, movies. He applied for Serbian ID and in may this year he and his with got their Serbian Ids. They go to ski on Jahorina, Kopaonik, coast of Monte Negro, Bulgaria, Turkey. They drive bicycles all over the place, bought apartment here and plan to build a house. Their son is a of the best pupils in his school. They simply wanted to do all mentioned above and they are very happy here. In some way maybe our friendship, love and care I showed to them since the very start was the biggest motivation for them to get integrated here. Russians are bit cold and distanced society, very much segregated and frightened in Russia itself but they are very well educated and polite and they are welcomed in Serbia. Serbs would be always be on Russian side no matter who their leader is, Tsar, Stalin, Putin. We consider them as our close relatives and orthodox brothers just like Greeks and these are the only nations in Europe who are really our truth friends and allies.

About Russians in Serbia I don't have against them, and also same for other forigners who respect Serbian laws, population, and state, no matter if they stay for few days or for a longer period. Also that should Serbians act when they go outside Serbia, and luckely majority do. Now about Russians majority of them didn't know anything about Serbia, and majority will try to get visas for the West, the procedure is longer and difficult but it's not entirely closed. But I agree only time will tell.

I like your videos but the part about the Serbian and Russian language is wrong. Russia isn’t new to Serbia, we know their culture and history. A lot of Serbians visit Russia every year. So I think i can say that Serbians throughout history have build a connection to Russia and they have a clear picture of that country.

It’s more the western countries that try to force us to think and behave in a certain way. Russia never forced us to change our sight nor to give up our freedoms. They rather saved our asses in different wars.

Yeah, all true. I am one of those russians in Belgrade.

Welcome back man! Great to see you again. Problem with Russians and their integration now is that they came all at once in big number. They still don't feel the need to be integrated. But, its just mater of time. There were Russians in Serbia before, and not a small number too, but they came one by one and got integrated pretty quickly. So these new ones will. Some will go back to Russia, some will go elsewhere, and some will stay. Just as it was after First world war and October Revolution. There was great number of Russians in Serbia, even some of their counts and generals are buried here.

Russians are very nice people ❤ we love them . I hope to see much more of them. Welcome Russian people ❤
Same thing goes for Ucraine people especially thous who dont agree with Zelinski ❤

A 300e flat went to 700e overnight... Other prices went up also - my gym, the sauna I used etc.
I am a local and this was defeating... so that was my first impression. It seemed like Belgrade became a city for foreigners and those locals who already own realestate in Belgrade and that suddenly Serbs from other cities who lived as tenants in Belgrade were no longer welcome...
Concerning Russian people - I don't mind them personally. Most of them seem to be very polite and educated people. I believe they do not integrate partly because they do not have plans to stay long-term and they might be hoping the war will end soon. Some of them anyway...
Also, it was the first "wave" of Russians that were remote workers and IT guys... Last several waves were much less educated and well-off people such as plumbers, drivers, electricians and different type of contractors... I see these people looking for jobs in FB groups all the time... I can imagine that a lot of those guys only had a few paychecks worth of cash before coming here and a lot of them have kids to feed so I sympathize.
All things concerned - it is what it it... I wish them well. I would have done the same if I were one of them. It's not pleasant for me but I prefer focusing on solutions than on problems...

Russian Serbian roots are much deeper than you can imagine in your ignorance. Did you know that the ancestor of the Russians came from Serbia (Vinča and Lepenski Vir). Did you know that before the beginning of the 19th century, when language reforms began in Serbia, the Serbian and Russian written languages ​​were identical. Did you know that significant Russian historical figures were either Serbs or of direct Serbian origin, such as the great diplomat Count Sava Vladisavljević (Who established the Russian intelligence services), Emperor Ivan Grozny, etc. Did you know that modern Ukraine was founded by Serbian colonists in a mass exodus from Austria-Hungary in the 18th century (New Serbia, etc.). Learn all that before you show your unbridled western arrogance based on your ignorance. By the way, we shouldn't be surprised considering you come from a de facto still British colonial conglomerate called Canada that still has no cultural or national identity or even own head of state. We are not afraid of the Russians because we are the same people. We are afraid of pseudo Slavs (Polish, Ukrainians etc) with a huge inferiority complex who desperately want to be what they are actually not.