He has become, as they comment in Belgrade, a messenger and voice for Vucic and they (the media) remind him that his role is to look after the soul, not the politics of the Serbian president.

But apparently Vucic and Porfirije are in a dangerous symbiosis that undermines the authority of the Serbian Orthodox Church (SOC), or rather, as theologian Vukashin Milicevic explains, the Russian Orthodox Church is very aggressive in inter-Orthodox relations and has proven to be a tool in the hands of the Kremlin regime, just as the SOC is a lever of the Aleksandar Vucic regime.

The Serbian Patriarch complained to Putin that a color revolution is taking place in Serbia, but hopes it will be overcome, spoke to him about Western influence on Serbia and expressed hope that in a possible new geopolitical division the country will remain in the Russian world.

It was known before that the Serbian patriarch did not support the student protests, but now, as Vucic did, he reduced them to a “color revolution, proving that he is not the spiritual head of all Serbs, but a pawn in the hands of the authorities.

The worship of Russia and Putin reached its apogee with the words of the Serbian Patriarch, who explained that the Serbian people see the Russian people as their own. It can sometimes seem that the hope that Serbs place is greater in Russia, in Russian politics, than in their own. Perhaps this is a paradox.

Yes, there are many paradoxes and unknowns, especially at the moment when student protests and blockades in Serbia have not subsided, and Vucic makes no secret of the fact that he will settle scores with the recalcitrant when he decides that the time is right.

Vucic will feel much stronger now because he believes that with the blessing of the SOC and the Patriarch, under the watchful eye of Moscow, he will rid himself of all those who are a danger to his power.

The reactions of the Serbian public are violent, they express undisguised bitterness and anger, all the more so because until now the SOC in their eyes has always been the institution in which they believe most.

According to the university professors, there is not a color revolution in Serbia, as Porfirije said, but an awakening of the people, and this shows even more clearly that the SOC is closer to Vucic's party than to the believers and does not want to touch their pulse, does not hear their voice.

Ordinary Serbs, on the other hand, comment, "We are ashamed of the vassal behavior of the Serbian Patriarch before Putin."

On social networks, some are even more extreme : "As long as Porfirije is Patriarch, I will not set foot in a church".

There is no doubt that Vucic and the SOC are in the Russian orbit and demonstrating that Putin's Russian world is their choice. Therefore, foreign policy games and manipulations about some kind of Europeanization remain only a political fantasy that, sooner or later, will come to light. | BGNES
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Eli Yurukova, BGNES’ correspondent in Belgrade.