[citation needed] While geographically not close, Serbia and Russia are both Slavic and Eastern Orthodox Christian countries and thus share a notable cultural heritage.

[citation needed] Diplomatic relations between the Kingdom of Yugoslavia and the USSR were established on 24 June 1940, and Serbia and the Russian Federation recognize the continuity of all inter-State documents signed between the two countries.

[citation needed] After the Ottoman Empire had allied itself with Napoleon in late 1806 and was attacked by Russia and Britain, it sought to meet the demands of the Serbian rebels under Karađorđe.

Karađorđe was to receive arms and military and medical missions; nevertheless, the terms of Russo-Turkish settlement agreed in May 1812 effectively provided for Turkish re-occupation of Serbia and the First Serbian Uprising was definitively suppressed in October 1813.

Serbia was thus put under Russian protection, although Russia was unable to exert control as it did in Wallachia and Moldavia, territories also dealt with at the Akkerman Convention.

[9] In line with Andrássy's idea that Austria-Hungary, in order to neutralise inimical irredentist tendencies, should establish close legally binding ties with all her neighbors, with whom she had ethnic connections, Austria-Hungary, which bordered Serbia to the north in modern-day Serbian Vojvodina), and the west in modern-day Bosnia and Herzegovina, sought to integrate Serbia economically by concluding a series of trade conventions with her and pressured Milan Obrenović to enter into a comprehensive bilateral political treaty.

[11] Prince Nikola I of Montenegro was a regular visitor to Saint Petersburg and was awarded the Russian Empire's highest decoration by Alexander III in 1889.

[citation needed] Serbia's People's Radical Party, which was founded by Nikola Pašić in 1881 and gained parliament majority by 1891, sought to free the country of Austro-Hungarian dependence.

Serbian pretensions in creating a South Slavic state (Yugoslavism as opposed to Austro-Slavism) put fear in Austria-Hungary of potential devastation of the Austro-Hungarian empire.

The visit to Saint Petersburg of Austrian Emperor Franz Joseph and his conference with Nicholas II of Russia in 1897 brokered a secret agreement between the two empires to honor and seek to maintain the status quo in the Balkans, which was in line with Austria-Hungary’s attempts to forestall an emergence of a large Slavic state in the region.

[citation needed] Serbian King Alexander I was assassinated in a coup d'état in 1903, which ushered in the end of the Obrenović dynasty and the return of the House of Karađorđević.

[citation needed] One of the factors that led to the beginning of World War I was close bilateral relations between the Kingdom of Serbia and the Russian Empire.

[14] In May 1914, Serbian politics were polarized between two factions, one headed by the Prime Minister Nikola Pašić, and the other by the radical nationalist chief of Military Intelligence, Colonel Dragutin Dimitrijević, known by his codename Apis.

[15] Pašić, though he often talked in public, knew that Serbia was near-bankrupt and, having suffered heavy casualties in the Balkan Wars and in the suppression of an Albanian revolt in Kosovo, needed peace in that moment of time.

[citation needed] Russia mobilized its armed forces in late July ostensibly to defend Serbia, but also to maintain its status as a great power, gain influence in the Balkans and deter Austria-Hungary and the German Empire.

[22] The Russian community in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia was effectively in a privileged position in a number of ways, as it enjoyed support and protection on the part of the Karađorđević dynasty.

[24] This service was terminated by a law passed in April 1922 that abolished the border guard troops; in 1923–1924 Wrangel's men were engaged in a contract to build a road between Kraljevo and Raška.

[24] At the Genoa Conference in spring of 1922, there occurred a spat between the USSR’s delegation and that of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia over the absence of a delegation from Montenegro; a meeting between Georgy Chicherin and Momčilo Ninčić took place on the sidelines of the conference: the sides arrived at a pro forma agreement that the government of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia would prevent further activities of Russian émigrés in its territory.

[30] In 1938, the Soviet government sponsored a planned coup d'état designed to remove the Stojadinović government, which was resented by Edvard Beneš, the president of Czechoslovakia and establish an anti-German military regime: Soviet intelligence officer Pyotr Zubov was given $200,000 in cash meant for the Serbian military officers selected by the Czechs to execute the coup.

[36] On 5 April 1941, the new government of Yugoslavia and the USSR signed the Treaty of Friendship and Non-Aggression,[37] which did not commit the parties to military assistance in case of aggression.

However, Tito eventually rejected Stalin's pressure and in 1950s became one of the founders of the Non-Aligned Movement, which was regarded as the third way, neither adhering to the U.S.-led NATO, nor joining the Moscow-dominated Warsaw Pact.

As early as on 11 April 1945, the USSR concluded a friendship treaty with Josip Tito, who put signature on behalf of the Regent Council of Yugoslavia.

[44] In the first two years following the war, relations between FPRY and the Soviet leadership, which during that period sought to accommodate the USSR's Western allies demands in Europe, were not entirely free of disagreements on a number of issues, such as Yugoslavia's territorial claims to Italy's Free Territory of Trieste and the part of Austria's Carinthia populated by Carinthian Slovenes, Tito's efforts to play a leading role in the entire Balkans region, as well as over Stalin's reluctance to decisively support the Greek Communists in the Greek Civil War, who were actively supported by Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, and Albania.

Throughout the 1990s, FR Yugoslavia was hard hit with sanctions from the Western world; meanwhile Russia was undergoing painful structural reforms that were accompanied by a steady economic decline in production until 1999.

[57] After Vladimir Putin became the President of Russia at the start of 2000, months after the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia, relations between the countries began to gain momentum.

[70][71][72] On 11 March 2022, the People's Patrol, a far-right anti-immigrant and vigilante group, held a rally in support of Russia in Belgrade, attended by thousands of pro-Russia Serbs.

Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, in an interview with a Russian newspaper, also linked the demands for greater autonomy by ethnic Albanians in North Macedonia with the Kosovo issue.

[91] On 29 May 2009, President Dmitry Medvedev described Serbia as a "key partner" for Russia in Southeast Europe and announced "We intend to continue to coordinate our foreign policy moves in future, including the ones related to the solving of the issue with Kosovo".

[61][104] In December 2016, the two countries signed a military-technical assistance agreement that allowed Serbia to receive as a gift: six Mikoyan MiG-29 fighters, 30 modernized T-72 main battle tanks and 30 BRDM-2 armored vehicles.

Since the beginning of 2022, Serbia has purchased multiple pieces of Russian military hardware, such as the Pantsir-S1 air defense system and 9M133 Kornet anti-tank missiles, despite the threat of US sanctions.