Serbian mercenaries in the Russian army: Dogs of war of the second order

 

Many believed in the so-called matras, the propaganda fell on fertile ground, which led to the unusual popularity of Russia and the immoderate worship of the dictator Vladimir Putin. When Russia first attacked Ukraine in 2014, the more militant citizens of Serbia, eager to help their Orthodox brothers, dared to go to the battlefield, where they became Russian mercenaries. Waging war in a foreign country is prohibited by Serbian laws, but returnees who ended up in court received ridiculous sentences, mostly probation or house arrest, because the state and obedient judiciary look favorably on waging war on behalf of Russia.

 

The war was better

 

After Russia launched an all-out invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Serbian warriors once again went to faraway places to help the Orthodox Russian brothers in destroying schools, hospitals, residential buildings and other civilian buildings, in destroying cities and satirizing the innocent population, for the sake of Russian imperial ambitions.

 

Worship of Russia, money, militaristic enthusiasm, love of danger, enjoyment of shooting other people, confusion in civilian life, who knows what all motivated these fighters to go to the battlefield. There is Bora Dežulović's song "War was better", sung from the perspective of one such gunpowder addict, who says: "War was better / there were no deferred checks / there were no collections of math problems / nor children with units and menstruation".

 

On the front, it turned out that the mercenary life is a mother to some, and a stepmother to others. A few days ago, videos appeared on social networks in which Serbian mercenaries complain about the torture carried out on them by Russian officers. That's why they decided to turn to the tsar master, Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin. "We are volunteers, we came from Serbia and other countries to fight for Russia. For the Russian Federation and the Russian people. Here we were welcomed as if we were drug addicts and alcoholics. They treat us badly. They gave us a machine gun. We got three, four, some and zero frames each. They told us, when we asked to give us machine guns and other weapons, that we would get them in color. You will capture yourself. Clothes, shoes - they told us you will get them. We didn't get anything," the fighters of the 119th Regiment, 106th Division stated in their complaint to Putin, asking to be transferred to another unit.

 

The irony of fate

 

Then Dejan Berić answered, a Serbian sniper who has been fighting for Russia for years, and along the way recruits people to become mercenaries and organizes their arrival. Berić said that the Serbian volunteers are treated badly, that the Russians treat them like cattle and call them "Gypsies", that they are not treated as people who came willingly to fight, "but as if they came to steal". Then he said that, after the Serbian mercenaries complained, the military police came, they shot into the air in the middle of the trench, and then "beat the unarmed fighters with butts, crushed several heads, hit them in the face."

 

The sniper said that they alerted all authorities, from the main military prosecutor's office to the president's administration, that Defense Minister Sergej Shoigu received video materials, and that in the end the whole matter was resolved: the Serbs will be transferred to the "Ahmat" battalion under Ramzan Kadyrov, on his request. A cynic would say that this is a classic example of the irony of fate, since the gentlemen in question are not exactly fans of Muslims.

 

However, this time fate was much more ironic and crueler towards the mercenaries. The Kremlin rejected Kadyrov's request, with the wording "that any blackmail and provocation against the leadership of the military department must be sanctioned." The Ministry of Defense decided to punish the Serbs who approached Vladimir Putin, they were sent to the places of the fiercest fighting, and the prosecutor's office launched an investigation that could lead to criminal proceedings. According to the Russian media, the military prosecution was allegedly given the task of passing a verdict according to which the Serbs will be declared "rebels and provocateurs". Provided they survive the frontline battles.

 

The extermination of the fraternal people

 

The attitude of the Russian public towards Serbian mercenaries can be seen from the reporting of the Russian media. Journalist Denis Korotkov told the "Nastojaščeje vremja" (Present Time) portal that army commanders are very skeptical of mercenaries, often not because of any nationalism, but for purely pragmatic reasons. "Poor knowledge of the Russian language, lack of military training, lack of motivation - what the hell does such a warrior need? Therefore, naturally, they treat him accordingly. And whose fault it is, whose misfortune - let them solve it with each other", said Korotkov.

 

There is nothing unusual or unexpected in the story of the sufferings of Serbian mercenaries, the only thing that can surprise and amaze is mercenary surprise and amazement. They went to fight for the Russian army, which is aggressing the neighboring country and committing war crimes every holy day. What did they expect? Brotherly Slavic love, the spirit of Orthodox unity, respect

for other nations, tolerance, respect for human dignity? You have to be quite at odds with reality and prone to delusions, so you have such expectations. And weak minds that succumb to Russian propaganda are exactly like that, detached from reality and filled to the brim with incoherent fantasies.

 

The Russian regime considers the Ukrainian people to be brothers, but it denies them the right to nationality, culture, language and state, which serves as one of their justifications for barbaric slaughter and apocalyptic destruction in the neighboring "brotherly" country. Serbian mercenaries have not only seen how the Russians treat other Slavic, Orthodox people, but they actively participate in that slaughter, for money, and then they are surprised that the Russian brothers treat them with disdain. They got exactly what they asked for and what they deserved.

 

This is how the Russians treat all other Slavic peoples, so why shouldn't they treat Serbian mercenaries as second-rate dogs of war. The very idea of pan-Slavism implies disrespecting younger brothers, the Russian is the oldest brother who should rule over everyone.

 

Kain and Abel, brothers forever

 

Only someone who has slept through the Cold War era can believe in the idea of brotherhood with the Russians. For almost half a century, the Soviet Union held the whole of Eastern Europe under wraps, including numerous fraternal Slavic nations: Poles, Czechs, Slovaks, Bulgarians. Whoever rebelled had the opportunity to experience the comfort of Russian casemates or to see Russian tanks on the streets of their own country. The Russians planned to keep the South Slavs under their boot as well, but that did not come true only thanks to the strong resistance of Josip Broz Tito and the party after the Resolution of the Informbiro in 1948.

 

For centuries, Russia has been an empire that subjugates other peoples, throughout history Russians have mostly conquered new territories and imposed their rule over the ethnic groups they found there. Even today, dozens of nations live as second-class citizens in Russia. It is enough to look, for example, at what percentage of Dagestanis mobilized for the war against Ukraine, compared to the residents of Petersburg or Moscow. Russia is not a democratic state with the rule of law, respect for the rights of minorities, tolerance towards others and others, but a dictatorship in which not even the majority of Russians know about freedom, let alone minority peoples.

 

It is not bad at this point to recall what Hristina Alchevska, a friend of Fyodor Mihajlovich Dostoyevsky, wrote in her diary. On May 25, 1876, she went to Alčevsk to visit the great writer at home, and he began to tell her how the Serbs and Little Russians who wanted to engage in literature in their native language were having a harmful effect and were only slowing down the enlightening mission and the course of civilization created by the great Russian people. .

 

Therefore, only the great Russian people have the right to their language, literature and culture, and the other small Slavic peoples, insignificant and nonexistent, do not even have the right to write in their mother tongue, so as not to disturb the elder brother's mission of enlightening the world with a club, a whip, violence, war, slavery and literature. When the classic of Russian literature imagined all-Slavic brotherhood like this, what to expect from ordinary Russian officers, soldiers and similar persons. Serbs and Russians – brothers forever? Some thanks. God save me from such family values and freaky family relationships. Both Kain and Abel were brothers, but not for very lon.