Serbia and Russia continue to strengthen the cooperation of security structures, it was announced on October 16 from the Government of Serbia for time return visits vice president Alexander Vulin Russia, broadcast by Radio Free Europe (RSE).
Vulin is in Moscow with the director of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service, Sergey Naryshkin, who emphasized Vulin's "influence on the development of relations between the Serbian and Russian services" while he held the positions of Minister of Defense, Internal Affairs and Director of the Security-Information Agency.
He then met with the director of the Russian Federal Security Service, Alexander Bortnikov, with whom he discussed further cooperation and "facing common challenges".
Vulin, who has been on an official visit to Moscow since October 16, is considered one of the strongest supporters of the Kremlin among representatives of the government in Serbia. Since the beginning of the invasion of Ukraine, he has made official visits to Russia on several occasions.
Earlier visits and invitation to Vučić
A little more than a month has passed since the previous visit. Then he met with Russian President Vladimir Putin, on the sidelines of the Eastern Economic Forum (EEF) in Vladivostok, when he said that Serbia is not only a strategic partner, but also an ally of Russia.
Then Putin sent an invitation to the President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić, to attend the BRICS meeting, which will be held on October 22 to 24 in the Russian city of Kazan. Vučić declined the invitation because Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk is coming to Belgrade on October 23 and 24.
Vulin previously met in Moscow in mid-June with the top of the most important security services of Russia, and in April with the Secretary of the Security Council of the Russian Federation, Nikolai Patrushev.
Decoration on one side and sanctions on the other side of the world
In January of this year, Vulin was honored by the President of Russia and the Federal Security Service.
The State Department, on the other hand, put him on the US sanctions list in mid-2023, due to the "malign expansion of Russian influence" and alleged involvement in the international drug trade while he was still at the head of the Security Intelligence Agency.
He stepped down from that position in November 2023, after Vučić faced pressure from the West.
Vulin was appointed Deputy Prime Minister and Minister without Portfolio at the beginning of May.
The relationship between Serbia and Russia
Serbia is one of the few countries in Europe that refuses to join the international sanctions against the Kremlin after the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Dragoslav Rašeta, researcher in the non-governmental organization "Novi treti put", previously told "Vreme". that the secret of Vulin's success lies in the Russian connections he built from the beginning of his political career.
"With their help, he won the favor of Russia, but also enabled Vučić to send messages to the public, both domestically and internationally, through him, messages that would be considered too radical and nationalistic for him to utter." However, since the war in Ukraine began and the Russian pillar began to lose its importance in the Serbian foreign policy strategy, Vulin also lost its usefulness", says Rasheta.
He believes that the purpose of Vulin's visit and meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin and the top of the security services is to make Serbia's turn to the West more difficult and to force Vučić's mistake with the "majority Russophile electorate".
"In the past few months, Serbia has reset its relations with France and Germany and started to tie itself more firmly to the West. "There is the sale of ammunition to Ukraine worth almost one billion dollars, the purchase of French 'bursts' that will replace Russian 'Migs', then Azerbaijani gas that will partially replace Russian and cooperation with the EU when it comes to critical raw materials," Rasheta said.
Although the rhetoric in the Serbian controlled media remains anti-Western due to the progressive electorate, these are significant steps of Serbia towards the West, which cannot be refuted.
Be that as it may, Vučić still manages to walk the tightrope between Moscow, Beijing, Brussels and Washington.
