Branko Ružić (b. 1975) is a Serbian politician who served as the Minister of Education from 2020 to 2023. A member of the Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS), he previously served as Minister without Portfolio in charge of European Integration from 2013 to 2014, as Minister of Public Administration and Local Self-Government from 2017 to 2020, and as First Deputy Prime Minister of Serbia from 2020 to 2022. He gained popularity among anti-government protesters by supporting 2024/25 Serbian anti-corruption protests and criticizing the vertically subordinated political system in Serbia. For that reason, for instance Serbian TV channels N1 Info, KTV Zrenjanin, TV Nova S, aired interviews with him on March 13, March 30, and April 5, 2025.
However, during that period, he continued spreading anti-Western, pro-Putin disinformation regarding Russian aggression against Ukraine. For instance, he appeared as a guest on the well-known anti-Western, pro-Russian propaganda television show Aktuelnosti on May 31, 2025, where he disseminated anti-Ukraine disinformation and claimed that Ukraine would “inevitably capitulate,” thereby justifying the Kremlin’s narrative concerning the causes of the aggression against Ukraine:
