The Serbian documents confirm that President Aleksandar Vucic's administration carried out experiments with high-powered loudspeakers colloquially known as sound cannons, two weeks after an anti-government demonstration in Belgrade was disrupted by what protesters described as a crippling sonic blast.
The joint testing of sonic weapons on animals highlights the depth of security cooperation between Russia — the EU's most belligerent adversary — and Serbia, a stalled EU candidate whose government is facing a serious challenge.
The Long-Range Acoustic Devices (LRAD) devices are marketed for long-distance communication, but when used at close range, they can risk hearing damage. They have also been reported to cause headaches, dizziness and nausea.
The government has denied deploying sound cannons on demonstrators.
Serbia is in the grip of its largest protest movement in decades. For more than a year, tens of thousands of people
- occasionally hundreds of thousands of citizens — have poured into the streets across the country, staging regular nationwide rallies that refiect deepening anger at the government.
On March 15, 2025, during one of the biggest
demonstrations, a sudden, ear-splitting noise ripped down Belgrade's main boulevard, prompting a wave of people to duck for cover.
Videos filmed from multiple angles show the disturbance rippling through the tightly packed crowd before people bolted in panic. Demonstrators arriving at Belgrade emergency rooms reported nausea, vomiting, headaches and dizziness. They reported hearing a sound like "a group of motorevclists" or a "locomotive" headed in their direction.
Serbian intelligence officers tested sound cannons on dogs in collaboration with Russia’s notorious security service FSB, according to government documents seen by Politico. www.politico.eu/article/serb... #SerbianNationalism #putinism #sonicweapons #FSB