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Shkruar nga Una HajdariDocuments show that Belgrade brought in Russia's FSB to conduct experiments on animals, two weeks after an anti-government protest in Belgrade was disrupted by what protesters described as a paralyzing sonic boom.
Serbian secret service officers tested sonic cannons on dogs, in collaboration with the notorious Russian security service, according to government documents obtained by POLITICO.
Serbian documents confirm that President Aleksandar Vučić's administration has conducted experiments with high-powered loudspeakers, otherwise known as sound cannons, two weeks after an anti-government protest in Belgrade was disrupted by what protesters described as a paralyzing sonic blast.
The joint testing of sonic weapons on animals highlights the depth of security cooperation between Russia, the European Union's most aggressive adversary, and Serbia, a stalled EU candidate country whose government is facing a serious challenge.
Long Range Acoustic Devices, known as LRADs, are marketed for long-range communication, but when used up close, they can cause hearing damage. They have also been reported to cause headaches, dizziness and nausea. The government has denied using sound cannons against demonstrators.
Serbia is in the midst of its largest protest movement in decades. For more than a year, tens of thousands of people, and at times hundreds of thousands of citizens, have taken to the streets across the country, staging regular nationwide protests that reflect growing anger at the government.
On March 15, 2025, during one of the largest protests, a loud, piercing noise ripped through Belgrade's main boulevard, forcing people to sit down or seek shelter.
Videos filmed from different angles show how the unrest spread through the dense crowd, before people scattered in panic. Demonstrators who showed up at Belgrade emergency rooms reported nausea, vomiting, headaches and dizziness. They said they heard a noise that sounded like “a group of bikers” or “a locomotive” coming towards them.
After initially rejecting allegations that the authorities had used sonic cannons, Vučić declared that “a full investigation will be carried out within 48 hours and then all those responsible for these fabrications and brutal lies will be held accountable before the authorities.”
Even Interior Minister Ivica Dacic denied any wrongdoing, insisting that Serbia “did not use any illegal means, including a so-called sound cannon.”
A month after the protest, the Serbian intelligence agency BIA published a report, commissioned by Russia's Federal Security Service, FSB, which stated that high-decibel devices "were not used during the protests" and that there had been no massive "psychological, moral and physical impact on people."
Serbia's Interior Ministry did not respond to a request for comment.
Animal testing
The animal tests were conducted as part of the investigation following the protests, according to documents obtained by POLITICO, produced by the BIA and a government ministry.
The aim was to assess whether the symptoms described by the protesters matched the effects of sound cannons, which Serbian officials have previously admitted that the police possess.
About two weeks after the protest, Serbian and Russian intelligence specialists gathered a group of dogs at a BIA testing center to assess the “effect of emitters on biological objects.” The dogs were chosen as test subjects because of their “high sensitivity to acoustic effects.”
According to the documents, the animals were exposed to two LRAD models, the LRAD 100X MAG HS and the LRAD 450XL, manufactured by the California-based American company Genasys, at "distances of 200, 150, 100, 50 and 25 meters."
The data sheets for these models indicate that they can emit sound up to 150 decibels, equivalent to the noise of an airplane engine during takeoff.
The documents also suggest that the tests may have been conducted without the necessary approvals for animal experiments.
“The Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management… has no information on whether tests have been conducted on the effects of the LRAD 100H and LRAD 450XL, as well as other tests on the effects of other devices on dogs,” the documents state.
"This ministry has never received a request for approval to conduct animal tests and therefore no decision has been made to approve the test in question or other similar tests," the document continues.
Danilo Çurčič, a Serbian human rights lawyer, stated that the dogs were “subjects of experiments or abuse,” as defined by the Law on Animal Welfare in Serbia.
He stressed that Serbian law requires that animal experiments be registered in advance and approved by relevant bodies, including an ethics committee, and expressly prohibits animal testing for “testing of weapons and military equipment.”
Radomir Lazovic, an opposition politician, described the tests as “part of a campaign by Aleksandar Vucic to cover up the use of sound cannons against his citizens during the March protests.”
"Thousands of people felt the massive effects of this sonic weapon on their bodies last year," he said.
In their report on the dog experiments, the FSB insisted that: "During the transmission of basic and test signals, the biological objects, the dogs, did not feel any discomfort, change in behavior, at the tested distances. The dogs were checked three days after the tests and showed no change in their condition."/Politico
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