Patriarch Porfirije’s and President Vučić’s Moscow Visits: A Wake-Up Call on Serbia’s European Future

The Wrong Pilgrimage at the Wrong Time

The visit of Patriarch of the Serbian Orthodox Church Porfirije to Moscow on April 22 took place at a moment of deepening political crisis within Serbia, as Aleksandar Vučić’s regime enters a new phase of alignment with Russia, while Serbia’s relations with the EU have become increasingly strained — a point underscored in the recently adopted European Parliament report on Serbia’s progress towards EU membership, which highlights insufficient progress on the rule of law, media freedom, anti-corruption efforts, and alignment with EU foreign policy. Vucic, alongside Viktor Orbán and Robert Fico, welcomed Donald Trump’s electoral victory as an indicator of the European Union’s collapse and the triumph of a new world order. However, contrary to their expectations, the European Union has shown remarkable resolve in defending its values-based and democratic order, as well as firm unity in its foreign and security policy. Furthermore, the European Union has consolidated public trust, which, according to the most recent surveys, is at its highest level since 20071. 

Side to these events, Patriarch Porfirije’s visit to Moscow gained added significance as it occurred shortly before 9 May, the day on which the Russian leadership marks its World War II victory with a military parade. Ironically, the event symbolizes Russian militarism and a security threat to Europe far more than the defeat of fascism in the Second World War. Porfirije’s announcement that Vučić would attend the parade further illuminates Serbia’s political trajectory, increasingly defiant of European values and openly siding with a Russian regime responsible for war crimes in Ukraine. Vučić ultimately attended the military parade in Moscow and, upon his arrival on 7 May, delivered messages highlighting Russia as Serbia’s reliable partner, accompanied by rhetoric that distanced Serbia from the EU and the West. The European Union views this Serbian alignment with Russia as a serious threat to European values, warning that such moves cast doubt over Serbia’s European future. Just days after the patriarch reaffirmed his loyalty to the Russian religious and political elite, the world was horrified by the brutal murder of 27-year-old Ukrainian journalist Viktoria Roshchina, whose mutilated body was returned from Russian captivity — a brutal reminder of the daily war crimes Russia continues to commit in Ukraine. The news of Roshchina’s murder, like all other war crimes Russia commits daily in Ukraine, passed without any reaction from the Serbian authorities, pro-government media, or the Serbian Orthodox Church, further confirming the depth of the loyalty declared in Moscow.

Religious Symbolism with Geopolitical Weight

Patriarch Porfirije arrived in Moscow accompanied by Bishop Irinej Bulovic, a prominent pro-Russian figure, spiritual mentor to the patriarch, and a key figure within the church administration. As the Russian Orthodox Church published a transcript of the meeting with Vladimir Putin, the most important messages conveyed by the Serbian patriarch to the Russian religious and political leadership were laid bare. In his opening remarks, Patriarch Porfirije congratulated Vladimir Putin on the Christian holiday of Easter, but explicitly underscored its symbolism of “victory,” clearly transmitting a political message about Russia’s and Orthodox civilizations' triumph over contemporary global challenges.

In his messages, the Serbian Orthodox Church defines itself as the guardian of the value order in Serbia, which, in the Serbian-Russian context, signifies deep entwinement with state policy. Praising Vucic and embracing Putin’s “traditional values” as guiding principles for the Serbian Church, Porfirije sent a message of unity between church and state modeled on Russia, thereby legitimizing nationalist and anti-democratic impulses in both countries. The metaphor borrowed from the late Serbian Patriarch Irinej of the “little Serbian boat tied to the great Russian ship” further reinforces the continuity of Serbia’s dependence on Russia, thereby undermining Serbia’s own sovereignty. Porfirije went even further, describing Serbs and Russians as “one and the same people,” erasing the boundaries between national identities and ideologically preparing the ground for the Russification of Serbia, an agenda the Serbian Orthodox Church has been advancing for years — all with the aim of fueling anti-Western mobilization. By portraying Putin as the “standard-bearer of Orthodoxy,” Porfirije evidently elevates him beyond a political leader to an almost messianic figure.

The visit placed particular emphasis on the Western Balkans and sparked sharp reactions in Montenegro. Numerous reports and analyses have long argued that since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the Western Balkans represent the “soft underbelly of Europe” where Russia seeks to export instability as a means of deflecting pressure away from itself in Ukraine. This was now confirmed by Porfirije’s expression of gratitude to Russia for its support regarding Kosovo, Republika Srpska, and Montenegro. Naturally, this strays far from the spiritual domain and ventures into direct political action — the statement drew particular regional attention because Porfirije directly challenged the sovereignty and territorial integrity of three of Serbia’s neighbors. His remark that “I believe and feel that our stance on Kosovo, Republika Srpska, and Montenegro also depends on the position of the Russian state” not only undermines the Dayton Peace Agreement, de-legitimizes dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina, and opens the door to continued campaigns denying Montenegrin identity and statehood with Russian backing, but also signals the opening of a “second half of conflict” (as Vucic's key coalition partner Ivica Dacic phrased it) in the struggle to resolve the Serbian national question in the region, a struggle originally launched in the bloody wars of the 1990s. The Serbian Orthodox Church thus positions itself as a key ventriloquist for Russian interests in the Balkans, cementing its malign influence on neighboring states.

Patriarch Porfirije’s statement that the “Serbian World” ought to stand shoulder to shoulder with the “Russian World” most clearly encapsulates the alignment of the Serbian Orthodox Church and Serbia’s political leadership, both in Serbia and in Republika Srpska, with Moscow’s ideological orbit, severely damaging Serbia’s relations with neighboring countries and the European Union. Accusations against the West of exerting demonic influence over Russian and Serbian society and of fomenting a “colorful revolution” in Serbia have further discredited the Church, which thus openly aligns itself with Vučić’s authoritarian regime — a regime that arrests and beats students across the country and does not hesitate to fire on peaceful civic protesters with sonic weapons.

Church, State, and the Erosion of European Aspirations

Patriarch Porfirije’s visit to Moscow and his messages to Vladimir Putin cannot be viewed in isolation from the broader context of Aleksandar Vucic’s increasingly authoritarian rule, which for months has been drifting into outright dictatorship, and his strategic rapprochement with Russia. At a time when hundreds of thousands of citizens and students in Serbia are taking to the streets demanding the rule of law, media freedom, and independent institutions, the regime is responding with brutal repression, arrests, and beatings of demonstrators, employing methods inspired by Putin’s Russia. Porfirije’s messages legitimize not only Serbia’s foreign policy alignment with Russia but also its internal repression, strengthening the alliance between church and state in suppressing democratic aspirations and advancing the creeping "Russification" of Serbian society.

The Serbian Orthodox Church, which played a pivotal role in spreading expansionist nationalism in the 1990s with tragic consequences in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Kosovo, is now, hand in hand with the Russian Orthodox Church, continuing to propagate an ideology that threatens the stability of the Western Balkans and Europe alike. Porfirije’s pronouncements from Moscow signal not merely a foreign policy pivot by Serbia but a return to an internal political pattern reminiscent of the 1990s under Slobodan Milošević and Aleksandar Vučić, in which autocracy, clericalism, and nationalism merge into a dangerous project of Balkan isolation and destabilization, while the regime seeks its foreign anchor in Russian imperialism. By refusing to implement reform packages, Serbia’s European integration is, in essence, frozen. The regime remains formally on the European path solely to access European funds essential for its survival in power, as demonstrated by the European Commission’s recent approval of a disbursement of up to seven percent from the Growth Plan for Serbia, despite the country’s evident lack of reforms and progress on the rule of law.