Serbian Minister of Interior Aleksandar Vulin visits Moscow on December 2, 2021. Photo: Thumbnail image of Youtube video published by Serbian Ministry of Interior (fair use). This story is based on original coverage by Truthmeter.mk. An edited version is republished here under a content-sharing agreement between Global Voices and Metamorphosis Foundation. Footage of a meeting of Russian opposition leaders taped by the Serbian Security Intelligence Agency in Belgrade in May was handed over by Serbian Interior Minister Alexander Vulin to Russian National Security Secretary Nikolai Patrushev in Moscow, Serbian portal Nova.rs reported on December 8. Patrushev also serves as Director of the Federal Security Service (FSB), the successor agency to the Soviet Union’s KGB. His meeting with Vulin took place on May 14. Serbian daily newspaper Danas reported that at the meeting Patrushev thanked Vulin for the wiretaps from the Belgrade meeting held by members of the Russian opposition. It has been difficult for opposition groups to organize meetings in Russia, so they chose Belgrade as they do not need visas to enter Serbia. Shortly afterwards, on June 31, Russian opposition leader Alexander Pivovarov was arrested in Moscow and remains in custody. He attended the wiretapped Belgrade meeting in early May with another opposition figure, journalist Vladimir Kara-Murza, who tweeted about the arrest. Another Russian dissident, businessman Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who lives in exile in the UK, also commented on Pivovarov's arrest. Сербская охранка, оказывается, записывает разговоры российских активистов и сливает их ФСБ История не учит, а Гаага ждет.. — Ходорковский Михаил (@mich261213) December 7, 2021 Serbian secret police, it turned out, tapes conversations of Russian activists and forwards them to the FSB. History doesn't teach us, but the [international criminal court in] Hague awaits. As of December 2021, Vulin had neither confirmed nor denied the connection between the alleged handover of surveillance tapes and the arrest. As part of their coverage, Nova.rs announced that Russia and Serbia had formed a joint working group to combat the so called “color revolutions” — a term used pejoratively by Kremlin allies as part of a conspiracy theory claiming that protest movements against autocratic and populist governments have not been authentic, but driven by the West. The task of this working group is to suppress civil protests and monitor the independent media, the opposition and civil society organizations. When asked by N1 TV reporters about the working group, Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić and Prime Minister Ana Brnabić said they were “hearing about it for the first time,” adding that “[the information] will have to be checked because this has not been discussed at a Government session.” The fact that the “color revolutions” are the subject of talks between Vulin and Patrushev is in the official statement of the Serbian Ministry of the Interior following the Serbian minister of the interior's visit to Moscow on December 3. “На састанку је истакнуто да су “обојене револуције” постале, већ традиционални инструмент политике одређених центара моћи и земаља које имају за циљ нарушавање државности и губитак суверенитета под изговором демократизације и констатовано да се слободне земље морају томе одупрети.” “At the meeting it was stressed that “color revolutions” have become a traditional political instrument of certain centers of power and countries, aiming at undermining the statehood and loss of sovereignty under the pretext of democratization, and it was stressed that free countries must resist it.” On December 9, Belgrade daily newspaper Danas reported that they had reviewed a document related to the meeting, which included a request from Serbian to Russian authorities to provide surveillance technology to counter “mass unrest.” Serbian authorities asked Russian Federation to train Serbian police in using their technical system for tracking facilities and suspects, as well provide cyber security training, to fight the “color revolutions” more successfully. According to Danas, the document states that the only two tasks of the Serbian-Russian working group for suppressing “color revolutions” are “normative regulation of the work of non-governmental organizations” and “consideration of ways to counter the mass riots and attempts to destabilize order.” The Danas article also noted that the document refers to the Working Group for Countering Color Revolutions as operational, after it had been founded in May 2020.