BELGRADE: Serbian authorities on Friday allowed into the country a Russian antiwar activist who was previously denied entry and had spent more than one day at the Belgrade airport.
Peter Nikitin said he received no explanation from the authorities for what happened. A fierce critic of Russia’s President Vladimir Putin, Nikitin told Serbian media he believed Moscow was behind his ordeal.
“I have no idea how I became persona non grata. The only explanation is that this was done on Putin’s order,” he said. “This is an illustration how big an influence Russian regime holds here.”
Though it formally seeks European Union membership and has condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Serbia has maintained friendly relations with Moscow and refused to impose Western-backed sanctions over the aggression.
Serbia’s pro-Russian intelligence chief Aleksandar Vulin this week was sanctioned by the United States for alleged crime and corruption and for aiding “Russian malign influence.” Serbian media have reported that Vulin wiretapped a Russian opposition meeting in Belgrade in 2021, which he has denied.
Nikitin holds both Russian and Dutch citizenship and has a residence permit for Serbia, where he and his family have lived for years.
He was turned back early on Thursday upon returning from a trip abroad and told to return to Frankfurt, Germany, from where he had flown in. Nikitin refused this and stayed at the Belgrade airport until he was allowed into the country on Friday.
Nikitin is well known as an outspoken critic of Putin and of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. He was one of the organizers of antiwar and pro-democracy protests in Serbia called for by Russians and Ukrainians living in the country.
Some 200,000 Russian citizens have moved to Serbia since the start of the war in Ukraine as the Balkan country requires no entry visas for Russians and is a fellow-Slavic nation. Many have fled being drafted into the army or moved their businesses to a sanctions-free country.
Russian antiwar activist allowed into Serbia after spending more than a day at the Belgrade airport
https://arab.news/4gc4v
Russian antiwar activist allowed into Serbia after spending more than a day at the Belgrade airport
- A fierce critic of Russia's President Vladimir Putin, Nikitin told Serbian media he believed Moscow was behind his ordeal
- “I have no idea how I became persona non grata. The only explanation is that this was done on Putin's order,” he said
Asylum applications drop to 40-year low in Sweden
- Asylum seekers and their family members accounted for just 6 percent of the total, compared with 31 percent in 2018, when total immigration was 133,000
STOCKHOLM: The number of people applying for asylum in Sweden dropped by 30 percent in 2025 to the lowest level since 1985, with the right-of-center government saying it planned to further tighten rules this year ahead of an election in September.
The ruling minority coalition, which is supported by the anti-immigration Sweden Democrats, has made cutting the number of asylum seekers a key policy platform since taking power in 2022. It blames a surge in gang crime on decades of loose asylum laws and failed integration measures under previous Social Democrat-led governments.
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The Swedish government has cracked down on asylum seekers, made it more difficult to gain residency and citizenship, and introduced financial incentives for immigrants to leave the country.
“The change is not just about numbers in terms of lower immigration, it’s also about the way that’s made up, who is coming to Sweden with the proportion from asylum at a record low,” said Immigration Minister Johan Forssell.
The number of immigrants, excluding refugees from Ukraine, fell to 79,684 last year from 82,857 in 2024, according to figures from the Migration Board.
Asylum seekers and their family members accounted for just 6 percent of the total, compared with 31 percent in 2018, when total immigration was 133,000.
The number of people either voluntarily returning to another country or being expelled by authorities was also up.
“This is an area which is a high priority for us,” Forssell said.
The government has cracked down on asylum seekers, made it more difficult to gain residency and citizenship, and introduced financial incentives for immigrants to leave the country since it came to power.
Forssell said the government planned to further tighten regulations in the coming year, including a new law to increase the number of returnees and stricter citizenship rules, among other measures.
Swedes will vote in what is expected to be a tight general election in September.
Meanwhile, Denmark’s strict immigration policies drove asylum admissions to a historic low in 2025, with 839 requests granted by the end of November, the government said.
“It is absolutely critical that as few foreigners as possible come to Denmark and obtain asylum. My main priority is to limit the influx of refugees,” said Immigration Minister Rasmus Stoklund in a press release.
According to the ministry, “there have been very few years when the annual total remained below 1,000 ... 2025 will be a year with a historically low number of residence permits granted on asylum grounds.”
Denmark registered 1,835 asylum requests by November 2025.
The country’s immigration approach has been influenced by far-right parties for more than 20 years, and Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, leader of the Social Democrats, has pursued a “zero refugee” policy since taking office in 2019.
Copenhagen has, over the years, implemented a slew of initiatives to discourage migrants and make Danish citizenship harder to obtain.
In 2024, the country of 6 million people accepted some 860 of the 2,333 asylum requests lodged that year.
