I'm John Batson with my colleague, Ivana Stradner, at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies,

reporting on Belgrade, the capital of Serbia, led by a man named Voucher, a young man with vigorous ambitions,

one of which is to be very good friends with Moscow. He's not

alone in the European environment. Other leaders are being friendly towards or make kind remarks

about Moscow, even during the Ukraine conflict. However, Goucich went out of his way, I believe, to demonstrate again and again

that Serbia stands on the Russian side of the war in Ukraine. And yet, you tell me, Ivana,

there's trouble at home. What kind of trouble? Demonstrations? Indeed, there are massive demonstrations

that we haven't seen since Milosevic

times. Some people even believe since 1968.

And hundreds of, basically, thousands of people actually are taking to the streets of not only Belgrade,

but other cities across Serbia to fight corruption after 15 people

actually died because of the collapse of canopy several months ago.

And students have completely blocked universities.

They are taking to the streets, believe it or not, they are walking from one

city to another, followed by massive protests over there. And Wachit is actually also in deep,

deep trouble because the United States slapped sanctions on Russian gas in Serbia. And Wich which has very few weeks to sort it out.

I have no doubt that he is trying to get a waiver from the U.S., but also crying in Moscow that he has

no other options. And Russian gas is actually the center of gravity of Russian influence in

the region. And as I mentioned, he's really, really in a deep, deep trouble. So he's back to

his old game of blackmailing the West with Russia, how, by basically having more

and more cooperation with Moscow.

So, for example, reportedly, the Serbian Deputy Prime Minister met with Choyevil, and what

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