Lessons from Serbia

last updated 8 January 2015

Kiev, Ukraine

Pro-democracy organizers from Serbia descended on Ukraine this week after the Ukrainian presidential election, which international observers said was marred by government interference, ended inconclusively. A runoff between government candidate Viktor Yanukovych and opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko is scheduled for later this month, and Ukrainian democrats supporting Yushchenko have asked for help from the Serbs. The Serbian group Otpor, which led the movement to topple Slobodan Milosevic in 2000, has already advised democracy campaigners in other post-communist countries. In Georgia, for example, the group helped organize the nonviolent Rose Revolution, which brought down longtime leader Eduard Shevardnadze. “There’s no exact recipe on how to export a revolution,” said Serbian activist Danijela Nenadic, “but there are ways to help people who want changes.”