Since the beginning of the year, the Serbian Government has granted citizenship to four times as many Russian nationals as to all other foreign citizens combined. Among them are Russians who are subject to international sanctions, according to an analysis of government decisions conducted by Radio Free Europe (RFE/RL).
The Serbian Government justifies the granting of citizenship on the grounds that it is in Serbia’s “interest”.
One such individual is Valery Kazikaev, who became a Serbian citizen on 16 January. He has been on the US sanctions list since April 2023 due to business ties with Russian oligarch Alisher Usmanov.
The US State Department declined to comment to RFE/RL on the Serbian Government’s decision to grant him citizenship.
Another recipient of a Serbian passport is Russian national Sergey Kondratenko, who was granted citizenship on 13 November 2025. He is subject to Ukrainian sanctions for “actions detrimental to national interests and national security”.
A further new Serbian citizen is Igor Kolyushev, a Russian civil engineer specialising in bridge construction. He has been under Ukrainian sanctions since 2022.
Ukraine’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and its embassy in Belgrade did not immediately respond to RFE/RL’s request for comment regarding Serbia’s granting of citizenship to individuals sanctioned by Ukraine.
The Serbian Government also failed to respond to questions about why it is granting citizenship to sanctioned Russian nationals. Serbia has continued the trend of increasingly awarding citizenship to Russian citizens despite warnings from Brussels that this allows them visa-free access to the European Union.
This concern is also highlighted in a recent European Commission non-paper reviewed by RFE/RL. The document warns that the accelerated acquisition of visa-free travel rights to the EU by Russian nationals through Serbian citizenship, the number of which has increased significantly, poses potential security risks to the Union.
“Not only has Serbia refused to impose sanctions on Russia, but it is also circumventing EU foreign and security policy in various other ways,” Bojana Selaković of the National Convention on the European Union, a non-governmental organisation, told RFE/RL.
As a candidate country for EU membership, Serbia enjoys a visa-free regime with the EU and is expected to align its foreign policy with that of the Union. However, it has neither introduced visas for Russian citizens nor joined the sanctions imposed by the EU on Russia following its invasion of Ukraine.
Who are the sanctioned individuals holding Serbian passports?
Valery Kazikaev was sanctioned by the United States as part of efforts to “further disrupt the import of critical technologies that Russia uses in its war against Ukraine”.
The sanctions were imposed in April 2023 because of his business dealings with Russian billionaire Alisher Usmanov.
According to the US Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), Kazikaev is a senior executive or board member of mining and metals companies linked to Usmanov, including Metalloinvest and Udokan Copper. Kazikaev also owns the Slovak company KTH Group Spol SRO, which is likewise subject to US sanctions. Ukraine imposed sanctions on Kazikaev in November 2023. These measures include asset freezes, business restrictions and a range of financial limitations.
Kremlin-linked oligarch Alisher Usmanov is one of Russia’s wealthiest individuals. His business interests span mining, metallurgy, telecommunications and information technology. The United States placed Usmanov on its sanctions list in March 2022.
The accompanying statement noted his close ties to several senior Russian officials under US sanctions, including Russian President Vladimir Putin and Dmitry Medvedev, Deputy Chairman of Russia’s Security Council. The US Treasury Department has also stated that Usmanov controls a network of companies registered in so-called tax havens, enabling him to conduct financial transactions that could potentially circumvent sanctions. He is also under sanctions imposed by Australia, Canada, the European Union, Japan, New Zealand, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.
Another new Serbian passport holder, Russian national Sergey Kondratenko, has been sanctioned by Ukraine. Ukrainian authorities determined that Kondratenko is the ultimate beneficial owner of Royal Pay Europe, a company sanctioned by Ukraine in 2023 for “actions detrimental to national interests and national security”. This is according to data from the Ukrainian branch of Transparency International.
Royal Pay Europe is registered in Latvia and provides electronic payment and other financial services. In 2023, Ukraine’s State Bureau of Investigation launched criminal proceedings against the company for allegedly misappropriating more than €30 million that foreign banks had allocated to one of Ukraine’s commercial banks.
“According to the investigation materials, during military operations in the Kharkiv region, the company attempted to re-register ownership rights to real estate belonging to a Ukrainian bank undergoing liquidation,” Transparency International stated.
In 2024, Ukraine’s High Anti-Corruption Court confiscated company assets in the country worth approximately $44 million. The funds were transferred to Ukraine’s state budget. During the investigation, Ukrainian security authorities also linked Kondratenko to a Russian betting network. Kondratenko did not respond to RFE/RL’s request for comment sent to an email address available to the newsroom.
Igor Kolyushev, the Russian bridge-construction engineer, has been under Ukrainian sanctions since 2022. The measures against him primarily concern restrictions on capital transfers from Ukraine and limitations on financial transactions. According to Ukraine’s National Security and Defence Council, Kolyushev serves as Technical Director of Giprostroymost – Saint Petersburg. The company is one of Russia’s leading firms specialising in the design of bridges and transport infrastructure.
In April, Serbian citizenship was granted to Yakub Zakriev, a nephew of Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, but the Serbian Government revoked the decision four days later. Zakriev is subject to sanctions imposed by both the United States and the United Kingdom due to his involvement in Russian state institutions.
Kadyrov himself is under US and EU sanctions and has for years faced accusations of serious human rights abuses, including kidnappings, torture, killings and persecution of LGBT individuals. The Serbian Government did not respond to inquiries regarding either the granting or revocation of citizenship for Kadyrov’s nephew.
The Balkan Investigative Reporting Network (BIRN) reported in September 2025 that at least four Russian nationals had received Serbian citizenship by government decision despite being subject to sanctions imposed by the United Kingdom and Canada.
According to that report, Serbian citizenship was granted to three executives of the Russian energy giant Gazprom. It was also granted to Ruslan Alisultanov, a former Deputy Minister of Agriculture of Chechnya and businessman who now presents himself as a leading figure in Russia’s food industry. In April 2025, the investigative outlet KRIK and the Russian media organisation Important Stories reported that among those granted Serbian citizenship were several Russians connected to the Kremlin political elite and Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB).
The reports also identified individuals linked to the defence industry, those who had profited from the war in Ukraine and figures associated with major Russian business conglomerates.
Serbia’s “interest” versus the EU’s “security risk”
RFE/RL’s analysis shows that 44 Russian nationals were granted Serbian citizenship by government decision in the first five months of 2026 alone. Since the beginning of 2022, more than 300 Russians have obtained Serbian citizenship.
The findings are based on decisions published in Serbia’s Official Gazette.
The actual number is likely higher, as the Ministry of the Interior also grants citizenship through the regular procedure, provided applicants meet specific requirements. The Ministry did not respond to RFE/RL’s request for information on how many Russian citizens have received Serbian citizenship since 2022.
The Serbian Government may grant citizenship through a special fast-track procedure, justified on the basis of being in the “interest of Serbia”. However, what Serbian authorities define as an “interest for Serbia” is viewed by the EU as a potential “security challenge”.
Recipients of Serbian citizenship include Russian athletes, artists, businesspeople linked to the Kremlin and sanctioned individuals.
Marko Todorović of the Centre for European Policy (CEP), a non-governmental organisation, argues that Serbia is expected to take EU interests into account when making decisions that affect the security of the Schengen Area. “When the EU is considering measures to make even tourist visas more difficult for Russian citizens to obtain, Serbia’s tendency to grant them citizenship, which automatically opens the door to Schengen, appears to be moving in the exact opposite direction,” he told RFE/RL.
Several EU member states are pressuring the European Commission to propose legislation making it easier to refuse tourist visas to Russian citizens because of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
According to EU data, the number of tourist visas issued to Russian citizens for the Schengen Area rose in 2025 to nearly 480,000, the highest level since the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
How many Russians are in Serbia?
Thanks to the visa-free regime, thousands of Russian citizens have passed through Serbia since the start of the invasion of Ukraine and the introduction of sanctions against Russia.
Some fled military mobilisation, while others came in order to continue doing business with Western countries without restrictions.
According to the latest available data from Serbia’s Ministry of the Interior, obtained by RFE/RL through a freedom of information request in January 2025, just over 48,000 Russian citizens held temporary residence permits in Serbia.
What is Serbia risking?
By granting citizenship to sanctioned individuals, Serbia is directly undermining its own European integration process and the community it seeks to join, according to Marko Todorović of CEP. “This suggests that Russian influence extends into parts of the political and security apparatus, which provide such ‘services’ in the hope that they will go unnoticed, or perhaps without concern for the potential political consequences,” he argues.
He believes the European Commission’s non-paper also signals that Brussels will closely monitor how Serbia conducts this process, how thorough the vetting procedures are and whether applicants’ backgrounds are genuinely examined.
Bojana Selaković of the National Convention on the European Union says the growing number of citizenship grants to Russian nationals, including sanctioned individuals, indicates that Serbia lacks a clear foreign policy orientation and continues to maintain close ties with Russia. “All of this is inconsistent with the behaviour of a country that wants to become an EU member, because the rules in this area are very strict and very clear,” Selaković said.
Serbia has not opened a single new chapter in its EU accession negotiations since December 2021, with one of the main reasons being its failure to align with the Union’s foreign policy.
At the recent EU–Western Balkans summit in Tivat, Montenegro, Serbia was told that it must choose between Russia and China on one side and the European Union on the other.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz stated that Serbia must decide where it belongs and that “balancing between Russia, China and Europe is unacceptable”. According to Merz, European leaders conveyed this message clearly to Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić.
(Radio Free Europe, 10.06.2026)
https://www.slobodnaevropa.org/a/srbija-rusi-sankcije-drzavljanstva/33776895.html