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Man declares country in unclaimed pocket of land between Serbia and Croatia

The founder of Verdis says the country could be a place where "new systems of governance" can be tested.

And the Free Republic of Verdis, the country he claims to have founded in 2019, is nothing more than a small strip of uninhabited forest on the border between Croatia and Serbia, more than 1,000 miles away. Jackson was at least partially inspired by Liberland, another unclaimed pocket of land between Croatia and Serbia that in 2015 was turned into a microstate by Czech politician Vít Jedlička. It is a symbolic state that offers virtual citizenship and an economy based on cryptocurrencies, but it has not been recognized by any official country, and Croatian authorities have blocked physical access to it.

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