The great nervousness and fear of the regime's top brass in the face of current events and a rebellious society are expressed in the purges in the security sector, which, after a series of retirements of high-ranking police officers, has spread to the Serbian Army. As Radar has learned from reliable sources, at the end of December, the heads of all security services in the country had separate meetings with the outgoing Prime Minister of Serbia, Miloš Vučević, at which they were supposed to confirm their readiness to defend the current order by all means, if necessary.
Although the managers surveyed in this unusual way answered all questions positively, it is obvious that some felt the need to further demonstrate their loyalty in the following days, while the government thanked others for their work so far, retiring them in almost absolute silence.
Quiet turmoil
Thus, if it were not for the scant news on the website of the Military Intelligence Agency (VOA), the retirement of its director, Brigadier General Zoran Stojković (January 24), would have gone almost unnoticed. His place was taken by the previous deputy director, Colonel Vladimir Planić, a cadre from the Military Security Agency (VBA). The haste in question is also evidenced by the fact that General Stojković retired only a few days after reaching the legal age of 56, although the General Staff itself has a large number of senior officers who are still in active service and have exceeded the retirement age by one or more years.
The above information takes on special significance when placed in the context of related events that took place completely out of the public eye. Namely, according to reliable information obtained by Radar, a little over a month ago and just a few days after the large rally at Slavija, on December 28th to be exact, the current Prime Minister in office, Miloš Vučević, had a very busy working day, and with only one topic. That Tuesday, the SNS president spoke individually with all the heads of the military and civilian security services, surveying them on one single question: whether they were ready to use all means to preserve the constitutional order of the country.
As we learn, the responses he received from the BIA, VBA and VOA collegiums, the Ministry of Interior and the General Staff were positive and temporarily calmed the nervousness of the top government, but also somewhat worrying when it comes to the same readiness of the officer cadre in depth.
Thus, after a decade of dismantling the security services (with an emphasis on the Security Information Agency) by bringing in incompetent people loyal to the ruling party, many of whom were later arrested for classic crimes, the government found itself in a situation where it did not know whom to trust. Radar's interlocutors point out that in a crisis situation like this, the top government increasingly relies on its hard core of followers in the Military Security Agency and special units, which, let us recall, it had previously allowed the recruitment of civilians.
Incidentally, the new VOA Director Colonel Planić, as well as the VBA Director General Đuro Jovanić, were a decade ago members of the same VBA department that deals with counterintelligence and physical and technical security of the Minister of Defense at the time when that function was held by Aleksandar Vučić (2012-2014). The career of Đuro Jovanić, then an adjutant to the current President of the Republic and a captain first class, progressed meteorically in the following years to the rank of major general, at a speed unprecedented in the Serbian Army.
Strange expansion of jurisdiction
This appointment, Radar's interlocutors say, actually completes the informal takeover of the VOA by the VBA, which has already proven its loyalty to the regime of Aleksandar Vučić by closing the army to the public and by waging an open war against the military union and its former leader Novica Antic.
"This is about the undisguised intention of the Military Security Agency to impose its supremacy and literally swallow up military intelligence, which is a very dangerous precedent," Aleksandar Radić, a military commentator, tells Radar.
Radar's interlocutor points out that all the VBA's activities in recent years indicate that it has been transformed into a daily political service of the government, even though it is supposed to suppress counterintelligence activities and crime directed against the Serbian Army:
"Now, on the wave of the need for political support for the regime, the VBA is in a position to trade, now they are needed and loved. It would be interesting to find out how many criminal proceedings the VBA has initiated since Jovanić's appointment as director in 2018 to the present. Instead, over time they have created the belief that the political will to "go after someone" automatically implies their guilt," says Radić.
"We have no evidence, but I sincerely hope that one day we will have and be able to see a lot of what the VBA is doing in these times. I cannot help but feel that they are very aggressively monitoring events that are far outside their department and natural sphere of interest. Of course, this is intelligence work against, for example, unions, with which they have established an image of themselves. In doing so, they have also taken action against one third of their own army. What can we think of an agency whose greatest enemies are people in their system, that is, professionals from the Serbian Army system, such as Novica Antic. That is why many people are afraid and do not want to talk about what is happening."
Radić emphasizes the fact that the VBA operates as a system outside the system, and carries within itself elements of the structure that survived October 5 and was deeply involved in the events that led to the assassination of Prime Minister Zoran Đinđić, and which the authorities later protected, even strengthened: "Now it is a system that has no borders because they have the support of the authorities, with whose blessing they completely closed the army to the public. Literally everything is treated as a secret. Thus, the information that we give to foreign countries, such as the number of troops, is hidden from our public opinion. They have closed themselves off completely and they are now just a special wing of a sect for which, when we think about them, the conclusion is imposed about who Vučić's loyalists are. All of this that is happening on the streets today is considered hostile activity in which they recognize a false foreign factor. That is their way of thinking. For them, any action against the authorities must be the consequence of contact with a foreign factor that gives instructions. For them, there are no students, or if you like, Serbs who think for themselves. Their clash with reality can be very dangerous indeed because they believe that we have a colored revolution at work here. I cannot project to what extent it can go, but this value system led to the counter-revolution in Serbia and the assassination of Djindjic.”
Radar's interlocutor points out that the army has no supervision over the VBA, because the chief inspector who is supposed to control the agency itself always comes from within it. "That's how they were 'controlled' for years by a man who was the head of technology in the VBA and was involved in wiretapping. We can only trust that system on our word, while they hysterically close off the entire army from the public. On the other hand, they are very engaged in creating a positive media image of the president, and when an incident occurs, such structures are only expected to cover it up. Such a service is unsanctioned, it survived the year 2000, and even during the democratic government, they slowly came out into the field with the idea of forming a single service in the army. One of the key people then, after I publicly criticized such ideas, told me that I shouldn't do that because the security service makes decisions, and the intelligence services are just their service. Well, that's the essence of that understanding and in that phrase is the essence of the problem. These people think that it is up to them to make decisions, and this is actually a very dangerous mechanism because it turns them into a political body, which has always had an allergy to intelligence."
Radić underlines that intelligence activity is by definition exclusively directed towards a foreign factor. And as he says, if you collect data coming from a third country, then you do not have any political compromise. He emphasizes that since its formation, the Military Security Agency has had the desire to weaken the VOA and include it in its activities: "Now they have a favorable moment because the head of the VBA, Đuro Jovanić, during the SNS government, advanced from the rank of major to lieutenant colonel general, a precedent that has not existed since the time of Napoleon's army."
Unlike members of the BIA or, for example, the Gendarmerie, the names of members of the military security services were less frequently included in arrest or indictment announcements, with the exception of Saša Vujičić, a non-commissioned officer of the Serbian Army and a former member of the first department of the Military Intelligence Agency, whose name is associated with the Jovanjica affair. It is indicative that Vujičić is the only one of all members of the MUP and BIA to evade arrest in this case and it is not known whether a warrant was issued for him at all. Furthermore, it is particularly unusual that a document authorizing Predrag Koluvija as a lieutenant colonel to act on behalf of the VOA to collect intelligence information has been posted on social media. An expert examination confirmed that this alleged document is a forgery.
Former VBA Director General Momir Stojanović points out that it is obviously about bringing loyal and suitable people to key positions.
"If I'm not mistaken, Colonel Planić was also in the Ministry of Defense as part of the department for counterintelligence and physical and technical protection of the minister when Aleksandar Vučić held that position. That department consists of VBA operatives and the military police department - Cobra. "We see that these people from Vučić's circle of trust are advancing much faster than usual, while for others, age regulations are being applied strictly, almost daily. So what is at work is only accelerating the already existing trend of bringing people loyal to Vučić to all key positions in the security system."
While officials from the region assess that Serbia is in an undeclared state of emergency, and the government holds one hand out for dialogue while holding the other, which is a truncheon, behind its back, high-ranking officials compete in proving loyalty. For example, Ivica Dačić recently stated that the Ministry of Interior prevented an attack by a drone armed with tear gas on students during a rally at Autokomanda, and the citizens of New Belgrade were able to encounter a convoy of military police combat vehicles that passed by the West Tower in the evening hours of February 6. As if it were an emergency situation, the convoy moved at high speed through the city streets, ignoring traffic signals. Radar has learned that this is a military police detachment that is under the direct command of the Chief of the General Staff of the Serbian Armed Forces, General Milan Mojsilović.
Vulin's difficult legacy
Radar's informed sources point out that in a situation in which the BIA has never really recovered from the short period when it was led by Aleksandar Vulin, this service is being used to monitor current and potential opposition leaders, journalists, environmental and student activists.
According to reliable information, a large amount of sophisticated equipment for intercepting communications, so-called IMSI catchers, has been imported to Serbia in the past period. These are sophisticated devices that imitate mobile phone base stations and practically take over all mobile phone traffic within a certain range. Radar sources point out that the amount of this equipment (the price varies between 70.000 and 100.000 euros per unit), which cannot be imported without special authorization, exceeds the current needs of the security services by at least ten times.
On the other hand, the security of the state leadership itself is almost entirely left to the Military Security Agency, which, thanks to its absolute closure, the specific mental makeup of its members and the legacy of absolute irresponsibility, remains the strongest bastion of the government's defense. In this light, the number of members of the Cobra military police battalion, which is directly responsible for the security of the President of the Republic, has also increased significantly, as part of the famous Project 5000. This "brilliant idea", which involves accepting civilians into the army's special units, without military experience, was so well implemented that new accommodation facilities had to be built in the main Cobra barracks, in Banjica, to accommodate new members. As we unofficially learn, the salaries of new special forces officers today exceed those of fighter pilots in the Serbian Army many times over.
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