Serbia’s Post-Electoral Protest Was A Charade

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by Stephen Karganovic

Just as a week ago we speculated might happen, Serbia’s mass anti-regime protests, which started as if on cue the day after the apparently “not so free and unfettered” April 2 Presidential election, have now abated significantly, but without any obvious public reason.^[1] None of the protesters’ objections (many of them legitimate and sensible) were seriously entertained by the authorities. If we take the Easter weekend as the watershed separating daily mass protests involving tens of thousands in twenty cities and towns across Serbia from post-holiday crowds, shrunken to barely one or two hundred, one must wonder: what changed over that weekend? Did thousands of former dissidents suddenly get religion, decide to turn the other cheek to the regime, and stay at home? Or was there from the beginning of these “spontaneous” protests more to it than met the eye?

Syrian Republican Guard: History And Capabilities

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The Syrian Republican Guard was established in 1976 as an elite force within the Syrian Arab Army essentially as an internal security force intended to protect senior government officials from attacks by anti-government insurgents and also to serve as a check on possible “Bonapartism” within the SAA. Since its establishment, it has enjoyed privileged access to funding and resources.  Initially consisting of three mechanized brigades, each with a tank battalion and two or three mechanized battalions, its strength was later expanded through the addition of a separate tank battalion, three airborne and/or commando brigades, and two security regiments which provide bodyguards to senior officials including the President.  The Republican Guard is staffed by two-year draftees drawn from all over Syria, though it also contains a large number of volunteers serving in key leadership positions.  At full strength, the Republican Guard had some 25 thousand troops, though due to the wartime attrition, they are almost certainly lower. The Republican Guard has tended to be among the first units to receive the newest equipment, such as the T-72 MBTs.