Valdai Club

By enshrining September 3 in national legislation, Russia and China established the tradition of joint celebration of the end of the fighting in the Asia-Pacific theatre, which became a reflection of the high level of bilateral relations, the role of this global conflict in history, memory, politics and identity of the two peoples, their contribution to the victory, as well as opposition to the falsification of WWII history, Milana Živanović writes.

Despite all the difficulties that have arisen in bilateral relations over the past 80 years, along with the difficult international situation, the Russian/Soviet memorial heritage has been almost completely preserved in Serbia, and popular assessments of the contribution of the Red Army are mostly objective, Milana Živanović writes.

When it comes to official narratives, the choice is between memory and politics, and it reflects upon the country’s ruling elites. At the same time, a choice made once can change, taking into account various factors, primarily geopolitical ones, but sometimes memory is stronger than even politics, Milana Živanović writes.

Based on the foregoing, and taking into account countries’ experiences between 1992, when the unipolar world was established, and 2024 – namely, that the initiators of draft resolutions in the UN Security Council on restrictive measures were Western countries, we can assume that such attempts will continue in the future; we should not expect changes in Western sanctions policy, Milana Živanović writes. The author is a participant of the Valdai - New Generation project.

Young people in Serbia have a negative attitude towards the NATO alliance. The latest public opinion polls, conducted annually by the Institute of European Affairs in Belgrade, show that people aged 18-29 years — those who were born after 1999, or were children during this period — show less willingness to reconcile and cooperate, or consider bloc membership, compared to their parents, Milana Živanović writes.

Serbia, a small European country with a population of 6.6 million people (according to the results of the last census in 2022, excluding the territories of Kosovo and Metohija), is surrounded on almost all sides by NATO member countries.