07-11-2026: Immediately after the so-called “Student List” ousted Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and his Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) from government in recent elections, the new administration effectively shut down Alta Bank, a bank mainly used by local Russians. Serbia’s Central Bank abruptly revoked Alta Bank’s licence, offering the excuse that its financial condition had deteriorated. Alta Bank had previously allowed Russian passport holders to open both personal and corporate accounts. Russian community members who held accounts with Alta Bank were blocked from withdrawing funds and could only check account balances.[1] This move by Student List, without placing sanctions on Russia or banning the entry into Serbia of Russian citizens, has now made it nearly impossible for Russian individuals or businesses to live or work in Serbia. Despite overwhelming historical, cultural and religious links between Serbia and Russia, future relations between the two nations could go down a confrontational path.
No students in Student List
As The New Atlas has exhaustively demonstrated, “Student List” is almost entirely a creation of the US deep state, with supplementary backing from the elite of some European Union (EU) governments.[2] In fact, what has taken place in Serbia is effectively an electoral colour revolution orchestrated by Washington and directed against the Russian Federation. What is more, this is the second overthrow of a Serbian government practically by US government intelligence assets working in tandem with billionaire funded NGOs (Non-Government Organisations, or in reality, government organisations). In the year 2000, the CIA and its adjuncts carried out what became known as the first colour revolution (with the arguable exception of Tiananmen Square in China in 1989) by overthrowing the government of Slobodan Milosevic only one year after the US and NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organisation) waged war on Serbia in 1999, bombing it for 78 days. Then, Washington created the student group Otpor via the National Democratic Institute, the International Republican Institute, USAID (US Agency for International Development) as well as “NGOs” such as Freedom House and George Soros’ Open Society Foundation.[3]
Some of the same people involved in Otpor in Serbia in 2000 for perhaps the first colour revolution are again involved in the US backed Student List in 2026. While 26 years ago they actually were students, a quarter of a century later they are certainly not, but rather academics, professors and others well into adulthood. That there are no students in “Student List” is only one part of the deception. Another part is that the Western backed Student List was supposedly directed “against corruption” – as if a coalition with links to multiple US and EU governments will somehow be less corrupt. There is little doubt that the majority of Serbians did want an end to the government of Vucic and the SNS, which had been in place since 2014. And there is little doubt that some corruption was involved in the tragic event of two years ago, with the collapse of a railway station in Novi Sad which took the lives of 16 people.[4] Yet this tragedy was weaponised by imperialism to foster a movement which had the only aim of regime change in Serbia. This is just a part of multiple provocations that Washington and Brussels are relentlessly engaged in for the containment and encirclement of Moscow.
Infiltration
None of this implies that that the now former Serbian President Vucic was a progressive politician per se, despite the name of his party. In foreign policy, Vucic attempted to play both sides by approving weapons sales to Ukraine despite NATO’s proxy war on Russia. He also cultivated ties with Israel and its Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu marked by arms trade and technology exchanges.[5] However, despite immense pressure from the West, Vucic steadfastly refused to place sanctions on the Russian Federation ever since the start of its Special Military Operation (SMO) in Ukraine to counter NATO. Given the widespread revulsion of NATO in Serbia as a legacy of its war in 1999, and also due to the strong cultural, ethnic and religious links to Russia, Vucic recognised that any Serbian government which did enact sanctions on Russia would not last very long. US imperialism demands total and complete loyalty, and so a refusal to bend to Washington on this issue was more than enough to trigger a directed uprising.
Serbia, a nation of around six million people,[6] is deeply infiltrated by the long arms of the Western “NGO Industrial Complex” and has been for decades. The so-called Balkan Investigative Reporting Network (BIRN) literally lists donors on its website including Freedom House, the German Konrad-Adenauer Stiftung, the British Embassy to Serbia and Kosovo, the CIA cut out National Endowment for Democracy (NED), the Organisation of Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), the Rockefeller Brothers Fund and the European Commission.[7] The so-called Independent Journalists Association of Serbia lists its partners on its website, and they include USAID, the French Ambassador’s office, the European Commission and the Open Society Foundation.[8] So much for independence!
One of the most popular websites and news channels in Serbia is N1, which was set up by former US General and CIA Director David Petraeus and it is the Balkan affiliate of the US based CNN.[9] The so-called Lawyers Committee for Human Rights (Yucom) under the project title of “Justice for All” openly lists USAID as a donor, and it is co-funded by the European Union and the Council of Europe.[10] These Western funded pseudo legal bodies are often used to protect or bail out people on the ground who take part in anti-government protests and other actions which could easily see them arrested. Not only that, these “legal” bodies work away to undermine the actual legal system of the host – in this case Serbia.
Future confrontations
It should be noted that while the Student List garnered around 53% of the vote with a 70% turnout, many Serbians who supported them at the election could easily turn against them. During the campaign, Student List kept to a relative silence on crucial issues such as the issue of the “independence” of Kosovo and orientations towards the EU and NATO. This was probably strategic, given the overwhelming Serbian opposition to NATO and Western imperialism in general. Despite this, Student List is likely to make subtle moves towards Washington in a number of key areas, while dancing around the direct mention of this – for example the suspension of Alta Bank. If the Student List moved openly towards NATO and the West, a civil war situation in Serbia could break out. So, the Student List administration will likely act on strategic advice from their Western benefactors to orient Serbia towards “democracy” (US imperialism) and away from “authoritarianism” (Russia and its non-imperialist allies).
Workers internationally have a vital interest in standing in the way and speaking out against NATO’s provocations against Russia, which is becoming more dangerous with each day. A regime change operation in Serbia directed against Russia is a part of this deadly imperialist operation. Capitalism in the West has entered a stage of terminal decline, and it is resorting to desperate measures in a vain effort to uphold a dying system. Socialists have the task of building Marxist vanguard parties based on permanent revolution, to help defend the rising multipolar world against the ravages of a ruinous economic system which promises a future full of conflict. A better future remains on offer.
Workers League
www.redfireonline.com
E: workersleague@protonmail.com
[1] www.biz.chosun.com/en/en-international/2026/11/02/MKZS7XTGP5HCLKKMUSZPWZUUDE/ (04-11-2026)
[2] www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTHQaD0HZoo (04-11-2026)
[3] www.theguardian.com/world/2004/nov/26/ukraine.usa (04-11-2026)
[4] www.turkiyetoday.com/region/serbia-remembers-16-killed-in-novi-sad-canopy (04-11-2026)
[5] www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/10/26/what-vucics-defeat-means-for-serbias-foreign-policy (04-11-2026)
[6] www.worldometers.info/world-population/serbia-population/ (04-11-2026)
[7] www.birn.eu.com/about-birn/donors/ (04-11-2026)
[8] www.en.nuns.rs/ (04-11-2026)
[9] www.serbia-2017.mom-gmr.org/en/media/detail/outlet/n1-tv/ (04-11-2026)
[10] www.yucom.org.rs/en/justice-for-all/ (04-11-2026)
Image: Supporters of the Western backed “Student List” rally outside Serbia’s Election Commission headquarters in Belgrade on October 7, 2026. http://www.newsday.com
