Serbia just voted out longtime strongman Alexander Vučić, a win for the country's two-year protest movement and a loss for Russia's influence in the Balkans.

• A student-led protest movement, sparked by a deadly 2024 train station collapse blamed on corruption, grew into the force that beat Vučić's party at the polls.
• Vučić tried to dodge term limits by resigning the presidency and running for parliament instead, hoping to become prime minister, but his side lost badly and he conceded within hours.
• The opposition group, called Student List, won a clear majority but has no experience running a party, no agreed leader, and will have to untangle years of entrenched corruption.
• Europe welcomed the result, while Russia openly worried about losing a key ally, since Vučić had kept buying Russian gas and resisting sanctions despite talking to the EU.
• The outcome could also stir unrest in neighboring Bosnia, where a Serb-led separatist region leans heavily on Serbia for support.

Outlook: Serbia's new leaders are expected to drift toward the West, while Russia loses a friendly government and Bosnia's Serb separatists lose a major backer.