MADE AT HOME - POLITICAL ELITES AND MEDIA NARRATIVES ON THE UKRAINE WAR IN SERBIA, MONTENEGRO, AND BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA
MADE AT HOME - POLITICAL ELITES AND MEDIA NARRATIVES ON THE UKRAINE WAR IN SERBIA, MONTENEGRO, AND BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA

Author(s): Vuk Vuksanović
Subject(s): Politics / Political Sciences, Politics, Media studies, Communication studies, Security and defense, Russian Aggression against Ukraine, Russian war against Ukraine
Published by: BCBP Beogradski centar za bezbednosnu politiku
Keywords: War in Ukraine; Western Balkans media; Serbia; Montenegro; Bosnia and Herzegovina; pro-Russian narratives; domestic political instrumentalisation
Summary/Abstract: The war in Ukraine has reverberated across the Western Balkans in ways that reflect the region’s own political dynamics more than the influence of any external actor, including Russia. In Serbia, Montenegro, and Bosnia and Herzegovina, media coverage and public narratives surrounding the conflict have been shaped primarily by domestic political realities, local media structures, and long-standing identity divides. Although such narratives often resemble or parallel themes associated with Russian state messaging, evidence shows that their origins and functions are fundamentally homemade. Rather than being targets of Russian influence or passive conduits for it, political and media elites across the region selectively draw on, adapt, and repurpose these narratives to serve their own pragmatic and opportunistic agendas.

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