Photo: Zoran Žestić/TanjugThe influence that Russia has in the security sector in Serbia is often present with the full consent of the Serbian authorities. Minister of Internal Affairs Aleksandar Vulin is the liaison person with the Russian security sector
With a reminder of media reports that Serbia and Russia allegedly formed a "working group for a joint fight against color revolutions", director of research at the Belgrade Center for Security Policy Predrag Petrović told Demostat that the consequences of acting on common goals and interests can be seen.
"There is information that some extreme right-wing organizations, groups and individuals are financed from Russia and through the oligarch Konstantin Malofeev, but it is much more important what the authorities in Serbia are doing to prevent this," Petrović pointed out for Demostat.
And "they don't do anything", he believes, "but they use it for their own purposes, they allow the directed influence of Russia in order to present themselves to the West as the only possible healthy government".
He explains that it is difficult to assess the exact extent of Russia's influence on the security sector in Serbia, but this influence is often present with the clear consent of the Serbian authorities, and the regime certainly directly controls a certain number of extreme right-wing organizations and parties, such as Miša Vacić's Serbian Right, while he tries to manipulate others and allows them more room for action. This serves them to show the West that Serbia is under the authentic influence and pressure of Russia and that it cannot make some decisions, such as imposing sanctions on Russia or taking a tougher stance, because Russia can easily destabilize Serbia.
Wiretapping of the Russian opposition
Petrović said that there was information that the meeting of the Russian opposition in Belgrade was bugged and that it was forwarded to the Russian side, which is part of the bilateral cooperation between the two services.
He says that the Serbian service either finds out on its own that the Russian opposition is organizing a meeting here and records it and sends it, or receives a request from a friendly service from Russia to monitor and record the meeting and forward those recordings to Russia.
Working group for the fight against color revolutions
With the assessment that the regime in Serbia willingly cooperates with Russia on the security front as well, the editor-in-chief of the weekly "Vreme" Filip Švarm says that the alleged "working group for the fight against color revolutions" is not a serious story because, if it were, Vulin would not be dealing with it. "If a more serious cooperation had been established, Vučić would have been directly involved in it, Vulin would not have done it", and that Vulin is using it for "self-propaganda", because, Švarm reminds Demostat, "the government in Serbia was relieved when Sergey Lavrov did not come to Belgrade".
Švarm does not think that Russia has a large agency in Serbia, nor the possibility of maintaining it in Serbia, but that there is a need for the regime to meet Russia at every opportunity, even when it comes to security.
Special relations with Russia
The former ambassador of Serbia to Belarus, Srećko Đukić, states that Russia has a great interest in the Western Balkans region and that Russian services are present, especially in Serbia.
"Serbia has special relations with Russia, from historical, spiritual to the most recent connections established between services on various grounds, including the Russian Humanitarian Center in Nis," says Djukic.
The presence of the Russian security factor in Serbia is also indicated by the fact that some affairs have remained unfinished, such as the affair with the Russian spy who was caught in Zemun, and whose epilogue is unknown.
Đukić also reminds that all countries, including those neighboring Serbia, have changed their attitude towards Russia, so the country closest to Russia in the region, Bulgaria, expelled Russian diplomats from the country on the charge of being foreign spies, while from Serbia, as he says, they were not not even criminals, let alone security guards, were expelled.
"These few facts speak of the presence of the Russian security factor in Serbia and how much Serbia is under their control," Đukić tells Demostat and reminds that the radicals have always been the strongest exponent of Russian interests in Serbia, from the moment they were founded.
Đukić concluded that Police Minister Aleksandar Vulin would not be able to maintain such ties with Russia if Vučić did not allow him to do so.
MN/FoNet/Demostat
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