
The final day of the Belgrade Security Conference commenced with a keynote address by Ambassador Erin E. McKee, Assistant Administrator for Europe and Eurasia at USAID. She stated that Europe is at critical juncture and reflected on the suffering of Ukranians who continue to endure Putin’s brutality, emphasizing that Ukraine serves as an inspiration.
„Putin may not be at your door, but his propaganda is already in your community and ours back home.“ Additionally, she reaffirmed that USAID remains committed to supporting Serbia in its democratic aspirations and journey toward European integration, highlighting that democracy lays the foundation for long-term prosperity, while robust democratic institutions are essential for lasting stability.
All panelists agreed on the profound interdependence between democracy and security, emphasizing that combating strong anti-democratic tendencies and external influences requires innovative and unconventional approaches.
Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, National Leader of Belarus, the Head of the United Transition Cabinet and the President-elect of Belarus, addressed the audience via video message. „Peace is fragile when democracy is weak“, she warned. She highlighted that people, particularly younger generations, fail to fully grasp the value of democracy, which for them has become a buzz word. Its value is best perceived once it is lost, citing Belarus as a stark example. She declared that “dictators like Lukashenko may spread fear, but they cannot force people to love or accept them”. She thanked the media and civil society for supporting Belarusian activists and called for more mutual cooperation. „Dictators don’t stop until we stop them“, she stressed, explaining why democracy must be defended everywhere.
In response to the observation of moderator Tobias Schumacher (Professor in European Studies, NTNU Trondheim, and Senior Professorial Fellow, College of Europe, Natolin) that intense Russian interference is a common factor in the processes unfolding in Georgia and Moldova, Adrian Balutel, Chief of Staff to the President of the Republic of Moldova, highlighted techniques such as vote buy-out, control of political parties, distorting narratives, spreading propaganda, and disseminating misinformation. He noted that, given the extraordinary challenges the Eastern European countries face, sometimes extraordinary measures are necessary to defend democracy.
Giorgi Oniani, the Deputy Executive Director of Transparency International Georgia, marked Georgia as a textbook example of “captured state”. He said that the early signs of power consolidations by the rulinig party were evident from the start, but the consolidation of power was done in a particular manner – through a network of personal loyalty to the richest and most powerful man in Georgia. He highlighted the role of whistleblowers in debunking state capture, citing how they unveiled that Georgian intelligence service controls the electorate by building mass database on voter preferences and vulnerabilities and then mobilising all institutions to pressure their identified weak points to affect elections results. He stated that with the invasion of Ukraine everything accelerated, and the government began to directly express an anti-Western stance, portraying the West as the enemy. “Ukraine has a tremendous influence on the whole region”, Oniani concluded.
Iryna Krasnoshtan, Programme Director at the International Center for Ukrainian Victory, agreed with the moderator’s statement that both conventional and unconventional means are employed by Russia, weaponizing everything that can be weaponized. “On a daily basis, people are deprived of sleep… Russia has weaponized sleep, the cold, migration…”. She expressed the need for rethinking “how we analyze progress in democratic reforms, in light of all the pressures and provocations we are targets of”. She emphasized that the European Commission and civil society organizations noted that progress has not stalled despite the war, with no setbacks observed. Even though there are corruption scandals, Ukraine is developing infrastructure for combating this reality, she claimed, especially emphasizing efforts to ensure transparency of defence procurement.
Thomas Hacker, Member of the German Bundestag, strongly affirmed that democracy is under pressure, within and outside of EU borders, emphasizing the significance of cyber warfare and the so-called war of narratives. “We need to deliver what is needed to Ukraine, what it needs for regaining their sovereignty. By not giving enough, by giving too late, we have endangered this country”, he stated.