BCSP: Who Manages the Security Services?

The decision of the Ministry of Interior, which does not allow Russian citizen Elena Koposova permanent residence and orders her to leave Serbia, raises the question of who and on what basis conducts security assessments within our security services and whether these assessments are carried out in accordance with the strategic national interests of Serbia and in accordance with professional standards of profession, or they were adopted based on some other political orders and alliances with countries that were not disclosed to the citizens of Serbia. This decision is the last in a series of measures that the Ministry of Interior has recently adopted, which includes temporary detention of certain Russian anti-war activists at border crossings, as well as last year’s ban on entering the country for individuals such as former Montenegrin official Jovana Marović.

Recent statements by the former director of the BIA, Aleksandar Vulin, in which he claims that some measures are being implemented based on the decisions he issued while he held that post, lead to the conclusion that Vulin still manages this institution. If this is true, the question arises: in the name of which country? We remind the public that Vulin recently received a decoration from the Federal Security Service of Russia for his contribution to the cooperation of the Serbian and Russian security services and that the Prime Minister and the President of the State publicly thanked the Russian Security Service for information about the citizens’ protests against election irregularities.

The public in Serbia has the right to know whether there is a list of unwelcomed individuals from abroad, whether anti-war activities have become punishable, and whether such decisions are made in accordance with Serbia’s interests and Serbia’s strategic commitment to the values of the European Union or some other country. In other words – is the Security Information Agency independent in its work or a subsidiary of the security service of another country? If the latter is the case, it is a real threat to security and constitutional order, not the actions of peace activists.