Serbia grants citizenship to former Ukrainian MP suspected of high treason

Filed 2h ago · Via NV · The Buffoon Desk

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Kevin MacLeod · incompetech.com · CC BY 4.0

Photo: Meissen Manufactory · CC0 · via Wikimedia Commons

Serbia's government granted citizenship to Vadim Novynskyi, a former Ukrainian lawmaker wanted by Kyiv on suspicion of high treason and incitement of religious hatred, under a special provision letting officials waive residency and other requirements when naturalization is deemed to serve Serbia's interest.

Prime Minister Đuro Macut signed the decision, published in the official gazette, and neither his government nor the Interior Ministry answered questions about why it applied to Novynskyi or how it benefits Serbia.

Ukrainian investigators allege he promoted pro-Moscow narratives since 2014 and served as a curator of Russian Orthodox Church interests in Ukraine, charges his lawyer disputes; he has settled in Croatia, where he bought a €10.5 million estate, while a mining company once tied to his holdings keeps paying taxes to Russia from occupied Crimea.

More than 300 Russians, some sanctioned or Kremlin-linked, have received Serbian citizenship the same way since 2022, a pattern that has drawn EU scrutiny given Serbs' visa-free travel to the bloc.

The full dispatch is available from the source below.

✒ FROM THE EDITORIAL DESK

Handing out passports under a clause that just says “because we felt like it” is a strange way to run an immigration system, but Belgrade has clearly found the paperwork convenient. A government that won't explain one decision to its own reporters usually has three hundred reasons not to. Somewhere a customs officer in Brussels is going to have some questions.

Source: Read the original at NV → Scored: Sneaky · Kevin MacLeod · CC BY 4.0

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