Serbian president says lithium protests part of ‘hybrid’ warfare against country

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said he has been tipped off by Russian intelligence services that ‘“mass unrest and a coup’ were being prepared by unspecified Western powers that want to oust him from power (Darko Vojinovic/AP)

Serbia’s president has accused demonstrators who oppose a lithium mining project in the Balkan country of being part of a Western-backed “hybrid” warfare against his government and vowed to take strong legal action against those protesters who blocked rail and road traffic in the capital a day earlier.

In one of the biggest protests in recent years, tens of thousands took to the streets in the capital, Belgrade, on Saturday against lithium mining in Serbia, despite officials’ warnings of their alleged plot to unseat populist President Aleksandar Vucic and his government.