Ana Brnabić in Wonderland

The newly established Prime Minister of Serbia, Ana Brnabić, has not even been in office for two weeks, and she has already stepped on a landmine whose detonation continues to reverberate across the entire political spectrum. We are talking, of course, about the now famous interview for the American agency Bloomberg and the subsequent visit to the Russian ambassador Alexander Chepurin, and as in many political scandals, the extraction did more damage than the original sin.

Let's start from the beginning: Brnabić, a few days after she was appointed to the position, gave an interview to Bloomberg, one of the most serious Western agencies whose majority owner (88 percent) is the billionaire and former mayor of New York, Michael Bloomberg. The interview was published on July 4, under the title: "If forced to choose, Serbia will opt for the EU instead of Russia, says the Prime Minister", and was immediately reported by all domestic and numerous international media. In the text itself, however, this sentence is not present (we will return to it later), but this determination arises from practically everything that has been said. Shortly before that, Brnabić gave a long interview to the Russian agency Sputnik, in which she spoke about the strategic partnership and the deep cultural ties between Serbia and Russia.

CLICK AND BOOM: At first, the reactions were expected and not violent at all. The pro-European part of Serbia welcomed the statement as a confirmation of the officially proclaimed strategic goal of Serbia to join the European Union; the anti-European right snarled, as expected, and the president of the Serbian Radical Party, Vojislav Šešelj, asked his former protégé, now the progressive president of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić, to declare whether he agreed; he, of course, ignored that request. This was followed by Moscow's first reaction, which, contrary to some expectations, was quite conciliatory. "The choice between the EU and Russia is Serbia's sovereign right, but Russia sincerely wants Belgrade not to be faced with that choice," the Beta agency reported the statement of the spokeswoman of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Maria Zakharova. "It is optimal to be with both. It is both useful and safe from the point of view of one's own interests," she said, adding that "the modern world and various countries have gone through many similar trials." "And the conclusion is one, not division, but harmonization of the process," said Zakharova.

And just when it seemed that it would stop there, something completely different came from the Kremlin, as they would say in "Monty Python". Zakharova said through the official Russian agency Tass that Brnabićeva did not say what Bloomberg stated at all, that the American agency misinterpreted her and - so that there would be no dilemma - that the Prime Minister of Serbia proved this to Ambassador Chepurin through the transcript of the interview that she personally handed over to him. . The statement, in order to remove the last trace of doubt, was illustrated with a photo of the handover of transcripts in the Prime Minister's office.

In fact, continuing the landmine analogy, one could say that Zakharova's first reaction was the "click" that is heard when the foot is placed on the detonator, which is activated only when the foot is lifted. It is really quite unusual for the head of government of a country that considers itself sovereign to defend the ambassador of another country because of something published by a news agency from a third country, and she proves it with a transcript (did Chepurin get a sound recording?). The question immediately arose as to why Brnabić, if she had already been misquoted, did not immediately send a denial to Bloomberg and request a correction, which the agency would certainly have to respect, and if she did not want to do that, why did she not first address the Serbian public, but the Russian public ambassador. And finally, why, when the cat was already released from the sack, was she silent for five whole days. She only stated on Sunday, July 9, that she handed over the transcripts "because it is important to maintain continuity for the Prime Minister to be open and honest with each partner." I didn't make excuses." Here we are already entering a paradox, because it appears that the Prime Minister is making excuses that she didn't make excuses because... Enough to make a person's brain boil, even without the July heat.

ON THE WIND: Getting out didn't help - Brnabić found herself the target of fierce criticism from the left and the right. Vesna Pešić, former MP and ambassador of Serbia in Mexico, and today a columnist, said that "no one has humiliated Serbia as much as the prime minister... That she goes to justify herself to some ambassador there - and I myself was an ambassador - that is absolutely unimaginable and I have to I tell you that for the first time I have offended myself nationally." The leader of the Democratic Party, Dragan Šutanovac, assessed that Brnabić "publicly questioned both her own and the national credibility", while Dveri accused the prime minister that handing over the transcripts was a "humiliation for both Russia and Serbia". "Why would the prime minister justify his words to any ambassador, even a Russian one?" asked the head of that party, Boško Obradović, while Sešelj, true to himself, again asked Vučić to declare whether he stood behind the prime minister's words.

During all that time, the leaders of the ruling coalition were mostly silent, or lukewarmly tried to downplay the importance of this episode, leaving Brnabić alone in the wind. Socialist leader and Minister of Foreign Affairs Ivica Dacic, whose department should include communications with foreign countries and their representatives, did not feel the need to announce himself, demonstratively refusing to taste the soup that others cooked. Deputy Prime Minister from Vučić's party, Zorana Mihajlović, said that the whole affair was "inflated", but invited Barnabić to share the transcript with her colleagues. "I mean, if anyone was supposed to get that transcript, it could be members of the government," she said.

Even President Vučić did not seem to be in a hurry to defend his protégé. He waited for a few days to pass, and only then, quite atypically for him, declared that he had no idea what it was about. "I don't know, nor did I get into who was talking to anyone, and I don't know if anyone gave transcripts, nor am I interested in that," said Vučić, adding that he had full confidence in Brnabićeva. "I know what she thinks, what she wants, I know the path Serbia is on, and I am convinced that the government will pursue such a policy," he said. After a few more days, he repeated (on Monday, July 10) that he was not interested in that story at all. "What do I care what the newspapers say? Ana Brnabić is the prime minister, she has the right to her opinion, she represents the government and must be aligned with the government's policy. What she actually said was in line with the government's policy and I don't see any problem with that," said Vučić in a guest appearance on TV Hepi.

UNDER THE TABLE: After everything presented, it is difficult to escape the impression that in the whole story no one played open cards - not Brnabić, not Vučić, not Moscow - and that a lot happened outside the reach of the public. The strategy was obviously for the newly enthroned prime minister to symbolically confirm the continuity of Vučić's policy of sitting on two chairs by giving her first official interview to Sputnik, expressing her commitment to Moscow, and then emphasizing the importance of European integration through Bloomberg. In the interview with Bloomberg, as we said, she really did not say the sentence from the title, but among other things she said that "it is completely clear that we are going to the EU", and that Serbia is tied to Russia primarily through tradition, culture and religion, but that the strategic focus is Brussels. What most likely happened is that the editor of Bloomberg, while furnishing the text, "inflated" the headline a little, which is a common practice in many media houses. Considering that the sentence was not put in quotation marks, but represented an editorial interpretation, the Prime Minister had no basis to ask for a correction, and therefore it is understandable that she did not even try to do so.

photo: tv b92 / fonet

Russia, however, did not like all of this, so an explanation was requested from the Kremlin. Under normal circumstances, this could have been done by addressing Dacic, or the appropriate MSP official, but the message apparently arrived through other channels. It is quite certain that Čepurin did not request the transcript on his own, just as it is certain that Brnabićeva did not come up with the idea of ​​handing it to him on her own. It is very difficult to believe Vučić's words that he knew nothing about all of this and that he doesn't really care what the newspapers write, especially when you take into account that in the same show where he said it, he presented detailed statistics about how many times he was criticized by the media .

That Russian angle, that is, Moscow's need to directly address the citizens of Serbia and tell them what their prime minister did not tell Bloomberg, is the most interesting part of the story and testifies to a certain lack of trust in the sincerity of official Belgrade's friendship towards brotherly Russia. This is finally evidenced by the increasingly numerous criticisms of Vučić by commentators in the official Russian media. Russia, in fact, has seen through Vučić's game, during which he bangs his fist on the table and lashes out at Western ambassadors, while gently caressing their knees with his other hand under the table. By publicly exposing the maneuver with the transcripts, Moscow is sending a clear message: "We see that you are lying and we don't like it at all."

After all, this is not the first time such a message has been sent. When, after the 2014 elections, Vučić secretly traveled to Moscow for a medical examination, and in fact to see Vladimir Putin, the citizens of Serbia were informed about it via Putin's official website, where, to make matters worse, the entire transcript of the conversation with the Russian president. The most important part of that transcript was Putin's blunt message that he expected that in the government that Vučić had yet to form, "persons dedicated to improving relations with Russia will be found." That's how it was.

HOUSE OF CARDS: In all of this, Anna Brnabić played the role of a lightning rod: all the anger fell on her, which, if it weren't for her, would have been directed at Vučić, who now has the opportunity to pretend to be uninformed. There will certainly be more such situations, and the Prime Minister is expected to heroically receive lightning in the future. This can be seen from the fact that Vučić pushed her to the forefront in connection with the strike at the Fiat factory in Kragujevac, which may be the reason for the withdrawal of Italians from Serbia. If that happens, Brnabić will be to blame, and if Fiat still decides to extend the contract (which expires next year), all the credit will go to Vučić. What little authority she had melted away before she had put together her first month on the job.

It then turned out that Brnabić is not only an attractive target for the opposition, but also for the parties of the ruling coalition, who are upset that someone from their ranks did not get the prime ministership. Well, if they are already forced to endure it, they think, no one can force them to defend it when the stoning starts, and some among them, like Zorana Mihajlović, are ready to throw a few stones themselves.

Therein lies the main difference between her and Mirko Cvetković, who figured as prime minister during the time of Boris Tadić, with whom she is often compared. Cvetković did not seriously bother anyone and, among other things, he did not meddle in foreign policy, nor did anyone ask him to do so. Brnabić is a thorn in the side of many people, and although the fact that she is a woman, even a lesbian, does not play a crucial role, it is still a factor in today's Serbia, where neither women nor LGBT people are anywhere near real equality. She is, simply put, a foreign body not only in the government, but in the political system, in which at best she is perceived as someone who entered their world uninvited, like Alice in Wonderland.

There are special laws in that country so, as Queen Hertz explains to a confused Alice at one point, "you have to run as hard as you can just to stay put." After that, the same queen orders Alice's head to be cut off, and in the end, the whole court, made of cards, collapses, and Alice wakes up from her dream.

Final question: How long can Ana run in place before she runs out of breath?