Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov claims Brussels is demanding that Serbia send troops against Russia. Not indirectly, not diplomatically - directly enter armed formations against Moscow. At least, that's how Lavrov presents it.

Serbia finds itself on the front line in the fight for national sovereignty while enduring direct pressure from Brussels bureaucrats to adopt anti-Russian policies, including sending soldiers into formations being created against our country, Lavrov declared at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Collective Security Treaty Organization.

How much of this is reality, and how much is a Russian narrative frame? Brussels does pressure Serbia on sanctions alignment - that's no secret. But sending troops against Russia is a formulation that fits Moscow's propaganda playbook far better than what the EU is actually asking for. Lavrov knows that every sentence about Serbia has an audience across the entire Balkans - including here.

The Russian diplomat also warned that Western powers could form a new military bloc with Ukraine as an alternative to NATO. Is this a real strategy or yet another attempt to stoke fear among countries navigating between East and West? In the Balkans, every statement from Moscow or Brussels gets read twice - once for what was said, and once for what's hiding behind the words.