Despite warnings from the EU, Serbia’s government has granted citizenship to four times as many Russian nationals as to all other foreign citizens combined this year -- including individuals under international sanctions, an RFE/RL investigation has found.
Serbia is granting citizenship to Russians through an expedited “national interest” procedure, a practice that Brussels views as a potential security risk and that could threaten Belgrade’s EU accession prospects.
Fast-Tracked
Among those who have benefited from this fast-track procedure is Valery Kazikayev, who has been under US sanctions since April 2023 over business links to Russian oligarch Alisher Usmanov.
Kazikayev, who became a Serbian citizen on January 16, was targeted by the US as part of its efforts to further disrupt imports of critical technologies used by Russia in its war against Ukraine. Usmanov, who is one of Russia's richest men with close ties to the Kremlin, was blacklisted by the US in March 2022.
According to the US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, Kazikayev serves as a senior manager or board member of metals and mining companies linked to Usmanov, including Metalloinvest and Udokan Copper.
Kazikayev, who RFE/RL was unable to reach for comment, also owns the Slovak company KTH Group Spol SRO, which is also under US sanctions.
The Russian was also sanctioned by Ukraine in November 2023. The measures include asset freezes, a ban on doing business, and other financial restrictions.
Another Russian who received Serbian citizenship is Sergei Kondratenko, who was naturalized on November 13, 2025. He is under Ukrainian sanctions for actions deemed harmful to Ukraine’s national interests and national security.
Ukrainian authorities determined that Kondratenko is the ultimate owner of Royal Pay Europe, a company sanctioned by Ukraine in 2023 for actions harmful to national interests and national security.
Royal Pay Europe is registered in Latvia and provides electronic payment and other financial services.
In 2023, Ukraine’s State Bureau of Investigation opened criminal proceedings against the company over the alleged misappropriation of more than 30 million euros ($35 million) that foreign banks had transferred to one of Ukraine’s commercial banks.
In 2024, Ukraine’s High Anti-Corruption Court confiscated Royal Pay Europe’s assets in the country -- worth about $44 million -- and transferred the funds to Ukraine’s state budget.
During the investigation, Ukrainian security authorities also linked Kondratenko, who did not respond to RFE/RL’s request for comment, to a Russian betting network.
Another newly minted Serbian citizen was Yakub Zakriev, the nephew of Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov. He was granted citizenship in April, although the Serbian government revoked that decision four days later.
Zakriyev is under US and UK sanctions for his senior roles in the Chechen government and his ties to Russian institutions.
Kadyrov himself is under US and EU sanctions and has long faced accusations of overseeing or tolerating severe human rights abuses in Chechnya, including abductions, torture, extrajudicial killings, and the persecution of LGBT people.
The Serbian government did not respond to RFE/RL's questions about either granting or revoking citizenship for Kadyrov’s nephew.
In Serbia's Interests?
RFE/RL’s analysis of publicly accessible government data shows that the Serbian government granted citizenship on the grounds of “national interest” to 44 Russian citizens in the first five months of 2026 alone. And, since the beginning of 2022, more than 300 Russians have received Serbian citizenship in this way.
It is possible that more Russians have received Serbian citizenship through the standard naturalization procedure, but the Interior Ministry did not respond to RFE/RL’s request for information on the total number granted since 2022.
While Serbian authorities view the fast-tracking of Russian naturalizations as being in the country’s interest, the EU sees it as a potential security challenge.
A recent informal discussion document (a so-called “non-paper”) from the European Commission --and seen by RFE/RL -- warned that the accelerated acquisition of visa-free travel rights to the EU by an increasing number of Russian citizens through Serbian citizenship represents a potential security risk for the EU.
“Serbia is not only refusing to impose sanctions on Russia but is also circumventing the EU’s foreign and security policy in various other ways,” Bojana Selakovic of the Belgrade-based National Convention on the EU told RFE/RL.
As an EU candidate country, Serbia enjoys a visa-free regime with the bloc but is expected to align its foreign policy with that of the EU. Serbia, however, has not abolished its visa regime with Russia nor has it joined EU sanctions imposed on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine.
The Serbian government did not respond to RFE/RL’s requests for comment on how it intends to address the EU’s warnings or justify the sharp rise in citizenship grants to Russian nationals.
Marko Todorovic from the Belgrade-based Center for European Policies says Serbia is expected to take EU interests into account when making decisions that affect the security of the Schengen area.
“When the EU is, out of caution, considering how to make it harder for Russian citizens to obtain even tourist visas, Serbia’s tendency to grant them citizenship that automatically opens the door to Schengen appears to be moving in the completely opposite direction,” he told RFE/RL.
Several EU member states, led by Sweden, are pressuring the European Commission to propose legislation that would make it easier to reject tourist visas for 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 full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
How Many Russians Are In Serbia?
Thanks to the two countries' mutual visa-free travel, thousands of Russian citizens have passed through Serbia since the start of the war in 2022 and the introduction of sanctions against Moscow.
Some fled mobilization; others came to Serbia so they could continue doing business with Western countries.
According to the latest available data from the Serbian Interior Ministry -- obtained by RFE/RL through a freedom-of-information request -- as of January 2025, just over 48,000 Russian citizens had temporary residence, which is granted for up to three years depending on the purpose, such as employment or education.
By granting citizenship to sanctioned individuals, Serbia is endangering its own prospects of European integration and undermining the community it seeks to join, said Todorovic.
“This suggests that there is Russian influence over parts of the political and security apparatus, which provides such ‘services’ in the hope that they will go unnoticed -- or even with complete disregard for the potential political consequences,” he said.
Todorovic said the non-paper is also a signal that the European Commission will closely monitor how Serbia conducts the citizenship process, how thorough its screening is, and whether applicants’ backgrounds are truly checked.
Selakovic of the National Convention on the EU says the growing number of citizenships granted to Russians, including sanctioned individuals, shows that Serbia lacks a clear foreign-policy orientation and is preserving its relations with Russia.
“All of this is not in line with a country that wants to become an EU member, because the rules there are very strict and very clear,” Selakovic said.
Serbia has not opened any new chapters in the EU accession process since December 2021, partly due to its failure to align with the EU’s common foreign and security policy.
At the recent EU-Western Balkans summit in Tivat, Montenegro, Serbia was told it must choose between Russia and China on one side and the European Union on the other.
Speaking after the summit, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said Serbia must decide where it belongs and that “balancing between Russia, China, and Europe is unacceptable.”
Merz also said European leaders had made this clear to Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic.
