The Serbian who inspired US Capitol rioters, then emigrated to Texas

A still from the video which inspired the Oath Keepers militia

A man whose video inspired one of the main leaders of the Capitol riots emigrated to the United States soon after the 2020 election. The BBC has found that he and his wife continue to encourage political violence on their social media accounts, a trend that worries extremism experts.

Three days after the 2020 election, while the result was still in doubt, a chemist from Belgrade was getting emotional.

Sitting in front of a blank white wall, he turned on a video camera and unloaded his opinions about politics in the United States - a country he had never visited.

"Hello again from the Serbian guy," he begins.

He apologises for getting emotional in a previous video: "I was afraid as hell. But now, when I keep seeing thousands of you doing the right thing, I'm not afraid anymore."

Then, in a presage of the events that transpired at the US Capitol two months later, he calls for attacks against American elections officials.

"They must feel fear when they're counting fake ballots. They must think about, are they going to get out of there alive?"

"Yes, I'm calling you for violence," he says. "If that is the only way, who cares?"

Inspiration for January 6 plan

The "Serbian guy" is chemist Aleksandar Savic. Of all the swirling conspiracy theories and emotive videos that circulated in the wake of the 2020 presidential election, somehow Mr Savic's clip went viral in right-wing circles, catching the attention of some of the people who later led the Capitol riot on 6 January 2021.

Chief among them was Stewart Rhodes, head of the Oath Keepers militia. The story of the video formed part of the evidence in Rhodes's recent trial, which resulted in a guilty verdict on a charge of seditious conspiracy.

Stewart Rhodes is the founder of the far-right Oath Keepers militia

According to court documents, Rhodes sent the video to a militia chat group, along with the message: "[W]e must now do what the people of Serbia did when Milosevic stole their election… Refuse to accept it and march en-mass [sic] on the nation's Capitol."

Rhodes told the group he was in "direct contact" with Mr Savic. The Oath Keepers were ready to follow the Serbian plan.

From a revolution to a riot

In his videos, Mr Savic compared the situation in the US to the events leading up to the resignation of Serbian president Slobodan Milosevic in 2000.

The comparison is not a very apt one, according to activists interviewed by BBC Serbian who were active in the country's opposition movement at the time.

One described the two situations as "fundamentally" different.

Milosevic's ouster in 2000 came after the devastation of the Yugoslav wars. There was broad-based opposition against the Serbian leader, who altered vote totals in an attempt to cling to power. Large rolling protests against his rule were mostly peaceful, albeit with notable attacks against state TV and parliament buildings.

Mr Savic, however, focused on the violence in his video, telling supporters of Donald Trump to go to the US capital, attack television stations and government power centres, and force the military and law enforcement to capitulate.

Bizarrely, he claimed that all of the countries of Eastern Europe were still socialist dictatorships and warned the same fate would befall the US if the election result was not violently overturned.

His video had a profound effect on the Oath Keepers leader.

Three days after noticing the video, Rhodes published a post on the Oath Keepers website, headlined "Call to Action! March on DC, Stop the Steal, Defend the President, & Defeat the Deep State".

"We must all march on Washington D.C. and directly back-up and defend President Trump as he fights against the ongoing coup that is attempting to steal the election," he wrote.

• Capitol riots timeline: What happened on 6 January 2021?

• US Capitol riot tip-offs were ignored, government watchdog finds

The post goes on to state: "A patriot from Serbia, who also loves America, shows us the way" followed by a point-by-point plan based on the 2000 revolution, including peaceful protests, followed by civil disobedience, and the gathering of millions in the capital.

Rhodes then distributed his plan to Oath Keepers and other chat groups.

During the militia leader's trial last year, US prosecutor Jeffrey Nestler told jurors that the resemblance between Rhodes's post and what actually happened on 6 January 2021 was "stunning".

Moving to America

In the meantime, Mr Savic and his wife were on a journey of their own.

The couple moved to the US shortly after the video was posted, arriving in Texas at some point in early 2021, according to work history and posts on their social media accounts.

Previously, Mr Savic worked in Serbia, Slovenia and France after getting his PhD in chemistry at the University of Belgrade.

His last job in the academic world was at the Jozef Stefan Institute in Ljubljana where he worked as a PhD assistant, an institute spokesperson told the BBC. His contract ended in March 2020, just as the Covid-19 pandemic hit.

Ms Jovanovic also got a PhD at the University of Belgrade and later worked at the University of Lille in France as a postdoctoral fellow.

A tweet from Savic. 'Pure-blooded' is a term used in anti-vaccination circles to refer to someone who has not taken a Covid-19 vaccine

In Texas, she worked at the MD Anderson Cancer Center until June 2022, according to the institution's spokesperson. MD Anderson officials declined to comment further, but on social media both Ms Jovanovic and Mr Savic have implied that she was removed from her job either because of her opposition to vaccines or refusal to take a Covid-19 vaccine.

Talking up political violence

Mr Savic has previously said that he was far away from Washington on 6 January 2021.

The couple declined multiple requests to comment for this story.

But on their social media accounts, spread across a wide range of mainstream and fringe sites, the pair continue to post a range of anti-communist, far-right, anti-vaccine, anti-Semitic and conspiratorial content. They've also posted anti-LGBTQ messages and posts expressing fury about illegal immigration.

Since they emigrated to the US, they have also continued to talk about the possibility - even the necessity - of political violence.

"There will be no violence = instant defeat," Mr Savic tweeted. "There is a potential for violence = possible victory".

"Potential of/for violence is what built and sustained the civilisation," he wrote. "For some strange reason, Western people have forgotten this fact of reality."

Impale Democrats!

On a fringe social media website, Ms Jovanovic shared several memes which appear to call directly for violence.

One showed a screenshot from a film depicting a line of dead bodies on pikes.

"Impeaching Democrats is out," the caption reads. "Impaling Democrats is in!"

She shared a similar meme depicting dozens of corpses and the caption "WHAT OUR BORDER SHOULD LOOK LIKE". On Twitter, she has called for the execution of Anthony Fauci and other American officials involved in responding to the Covid-19 pandemic.

While none of her recent posts are particularly popular, in the summer of 2020, shortly after a large wave of Black Lives Matter protests began in the US, Ms Jovanovic did score a viral hit with a video claiming that socialists were controlling almost all levels of American government and were planning mass chaos across the country. She argued that "tyrants" must be removed from office using force if necessary.

Copies of the video racked up millions of views across several social media platforms.

What's next for the 'Serbian guy'?

Although the couple refused to answer our questions, last year Mr Savic answered questions from left-wing website Talking Points Memo in which he denied inciting violence, saying that "angry people" can be inspired by anything from "books" to "rap songs".

He said that he had been in brief contact with Rhodes, during which he repeated what he had said in his videos. And he said he had not met Rhodes or any Oath Keepers in person since arriving in Texas, nor had he been questioned by law enforcement.

Experts say Mr Savic and Ms Jovanovic are part of a larger trend among supporters of the Capitol rioters.

"Even after his video helped inspire the Oath Keepers' illegal actions on January 6, social media posts from Savic and his wife are full of violent and anti-Semitic rhetoric and conspiracy theories about Covid-19 and the January 6 insurrection," says Stephen Piggott, an analyst with Western States Center, a non-profit that tracks extremist groups.

"In the two years since the insurrection, anti-democracy groups and individuals continue to advocate for and engage in political violence at the national and local levels," Mr Piggott says. "Time and time again, we have seen violent and dehumanising rhetoric accelerate political hate and violence."

The US Department of Homeland Security declined to comment on the couple's visa status, saying they cannot talk about specific cases, but said that authorities continue to investigate domestic extremism.

Ms Jovanovic called for the execution of Anthony Fauci, former chief medical advisor to the US president

Nicole Hallett, clinical professor of law at the University of Chicago and a practicing immigration attorney, says that there are numerous security-related grounds which can prevent foreigners from entering the United States.

But once a person is in the country, she says, they are entitled to a greater level of legal protection.

"You have many more rights inside the country than you do outside the country," she says. "It's very possible that people are admitted into the United States and later the authorities realise that they shouldn't have been."

"The government does make mistakes," Professor Hallett added.

Scientists turn to religion

It's unclear what type of visas the couple have, but Mr Savic recently tweeted about his long wait to obtain a US work permit.

They have a photography business, and last year launched a bible study project on their YouTube channel, offering paid membership packages ranging from $5 to $100 for different levels of involvement and direct interaction.

They claimed they were inspired to start the project by "the ongoing collapse of the Western civilisation".

However the videos, which they called their "Based Church" series, were deleted from YouTube shortly after the couple was contacted by the BBC.

More like this: