A number of Serbian opposition politicians and anti-war activists have called on Serbian authorities to allow Russian lawyer Pyotr Nikitin, a sharp critic of the Kremlin's war in Ukraine, entry to the Balkan nation after holding him at an airport in Belgrade despite the fact he has legal residency in the country.
Nikitin has been living since 2016 in Serbia, where he holds a permanent residence permit and is the founder of the Russian Democratic Society in Serbia, a Russian expatriate association that has grown to tens of thousands of people since Russia invaded Ukraine in February last year.
The Russian Democratic Society has been organizing protests against Moscow's invasion of Ukraine and has been helping anti-war Russians come and settle in Serbia, which has historically friendly ties with Russia and has refused to join sanctions on Moscow imposed by most of Europe and Ukraine's Western allies after the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
The activist group is also providing legal assistance to Russians, Ukrainians, and Belarusians in Serbian courts and has been cooperating with the Serbian humanitarian organization Doves of Peace in helping Ukrainian refugees.
Nikitin, who was returning to Serbia from vacation on July 13, told RFE/RL that his passport was confiscated upon arrival and that he was forced to wait about four hours before border police handed him an official document denying him entry to the country.
"About 12:30 a.m., my passport was confiscated at the passport control and they told me to wait. I asked several times what was going on. Four hours later, they told me that they had received an order from the Security and Information Agency (BIA) to ban me from entering the country," he said.
In reaction to the news, the Russians, Ukrainians, Belarusians, and Serbs Together Against the War group launched an online petition calling for Nikitin to be allowed entry into Serbia.
The group said in a statement that it "reasonably suspects" that the protests organized by Nikitin were "the only reason for his mistreatment."
"At the same time, this is a dangerous precedent, because starting today, any activist who is not up to the standards of the authorities in Serbia could have their human rights guaranteed by the constitution and laws taken away without explanation," the statement said.
Srdjan Milivojevic, an opposition lawmaker and member of the Committee for Human and Minority Rights in the Serbian Parliament told N1 television that he was not allowed to visit Nikitin at the airport and provide him with food and water.
Milivojevic said that Nikitin's "human and minority rights" guaranteed under Serbian law have been violated.
"I was shocked that we are really getting confirmation that the BIA has become a tool and a weapon in the hands of the authorities to advance anti-European politics," he added.
Serbia has long voiced aspirations to join the European Union. It became a candidate nation in 2012, but accession negotiations have dragged on, with Belgrade’s close ties to Russia growing as a sticking point.
Nikitin, who is married to a Serbian national, told RFE/RL that he also has two children who are Serbian citizens.
"I have nowhere to go. My home is here, in Serbia," he said.
"The police are not giving me any other explanation.... I will file a complaint against this, I will not move from the airport until they let me into the country, or they forcefully deport me," Nikitin said.
While he was born in Russia, he left the country in 1993 at the age of 13 to live in the Netherlands and has dual Russian and Dutch citizenship.
Nikitin has also helped organize protests in Serbia in support of jailed Russian opposition politician Aleksei Navalny.