MORE THAN MOSCOW’S SHADOW: Serbia’s Orthodox Church and Regional Influence
MORE THAN MOSCOW’S SHADOW: Serbia’s Orthodox Church and Regional Influence

Author(s): Richard Straka
Subject(s): Politics / Political Sciences, Political Theory, Politics and religion, Geopolitics
Published by: BCBP Beogradski centar za bezbednosnu politiku
Keywords: Serbian Orthodox Church; Russian influence; Western Balkans; Orthodox geopolitics; Serbian World concept; religious soft power; regional political influence
Summary/Abstract: This paper examines how the Serbian Orthodox Church (SOC) is portrayed in existing research and media discourse, primarily as a major conduit of Russian influence in the Western Balkans through narratives tied to the Kremlin’s “Russian World” project and hybrid warfare activities. These interpretations are based on the real and ongoing cooperation between the SOC and the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC), whose collaboration contributes to socio-political and security tensions in the region. However, while this publication does not dispute the significance of Russian influence, it highlights that such a focus has often overshadowed analysis of the SOC’s own expanding agency. Recent academic and policy-oriented works increasingly acknowledge the SOC as not only a recipient of ROC influence, but also an autonomous religious-political actor embedded in local dynamics. This is particularly evident in the evolving concept of the “Serbian World”, that has been presented to the public by Serbia’s highest officials in 2021, where regional case studies and newer research demonstrates that the SOC actively shapes identity, discourse, and mobilisation across Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Serbia. In many cases these objectives overlap with those of Moscow, but, as recent research show, they are not entirely dictated by Kremlin.

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