For what?

This question is asked to Russian friends President of Serbia against the backdrop of a spy scandal

In the shaky light of the street lantern, two people are hugged in a wary. The face of the one who is older is closed by a computer plaque; The young man can be seen excellently, and in it the assistant to the military attache of Russia in Belgrade Georgy Kleban will be identified in it. Two friends shows us a video on YouTube, drink beer in some not too presentable institution and exchange packages. Then the elder gets into the car, takes out a bottle of vodka from his package, which he throws into the seat, and an envelope with money. It unfolds the bills by a fan, as if he wants to demonstrate their observation camera.

The active GRU event, if we use this term correctly, occurred in the outskirts of Belgrade Zemun on December 24, 2018, and a retired lieutenant colonel of the Serbian army was a friend of the Russian intelligence officer. Only the initials remained from him - ZK as for Kleban, who managed to leave Serbia in June of this year, then, according to the Serbian counterintelligence, he contacted three “conspiracy sources” in ten episodes and in three cases transferred money to Serbian military personnel. There are photos, as well as video and audio recordings of these meetings. These details were informed by President Wucich personally, who had to hold an emergency meeting of the National Security Council on Thursday.

The first spontaneous reaction of the Serbs after the appearance of the video was humanly sincere. Prime Minister Ana Brabich said: if all this turns out to be true, "we will have a big problem." Defense Minister Alexander Vulin also sounded rather preoccupied. “The situation is serious. I see for this an attempt to prevent Serbia to remain a war -neutral country, ”he said. For the explanation for Wucich, the Russian ambassador Alexander Botsan-Kharchenko was called.

However, then the game was reduced. Before the meeting of the National Security Council, the RTS television and radio company distributed an interview that Reli Zhelski, the head of the analytics department at the military counterintelligence agency (BIA) gave her. It is extremely important to say, he said that “subversive reconnaissance operations carried out in Serbia should not be associated exclusively with the Russian Federation,” since this is a wrong conclusion, and this is not an “isolated case”. This expert assessment is well resigned by the message of the Belgrade newspaper Blitz, which wrote that the video in Yetube was most likely placed by the American intelligence services. Before they succeeded, the source of the newspaper claimed, more than fifty of unsuccessful attempts were made, but the Russian side successfully prevented them (“Each website that published the video suffered the collapse in a record short time”).

On the contrary, Zhelski continued, “although it sounds like a conspiracy theory, not only other great powers, such as the USA, Great Britain and France, but also regional players, it is enough to mention Croatia and Albania, are very active in achieving their interests in Serbia ... The country's leadership is faced with greater pressure, the purpose of which is to force him to abandon the strategic directions and courses that it chose.”

“I am sure that President Putin did not inform about this action” - such a phrase Vuchich actually laid an end to the development of a spy scandal.

Speaking on Thursday after a meeting of the National Security Council, Vucich said: “Serbia does not forget that Putin did for Serbia in international organizations, as well as to equip the Serbian army.” We, he reminded, were the only country that did not impose sanctions against Russia, did not vote against the interests of the Russian Federation, and only Serbia conducts military exercises with the Russian army. We never threatened our friendship with Russia in any way. “That's why I ask Russian friends, and I also asked this question to the Russian ambassador - why? I did not see any logic in this. ”

Vuchich confirmed the commitment to his country with the principle of military neutrality, saying: "Serbia will not join NATO."

Thus, the scandal flared up and went out in a record time. All this time, Moscow retained Olympic calm. This is not entirely a matter of the presidential administration, quoted the RIA Novosti agency Dmitry Peskov, but “I am sure that relations between Russia and Serbia are so special-partnership, fraternal, allied, that nothing can influence this character.”

However, the question of Vuchic - "Why?" - It remains. Even if you distract from unprofessionalism of domestic intelligence: after Salisbury it became so common that it is inconvenient to say. To some extent, the replica of President Serbia is answered by the investigator from Bellingcat Christ Grozev: contrary to the existing opinion, it seems that some figures in the intelligence and law enforcement circles of Serbia are not too happy about the activity of the GRU in their country.

On December 4, Vuchich's meeting with President Putin was scheduled. Despite her, apparently, the working character, the representative of the Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, called the upcoming event in Sochi a meeting at the highest level. According to her, the authors of the video had the task of setting up people “accordingly” before a number of negotiations and meetings.

Georgy Kleban just as I knew that a year after that significant meeting, he would help someone in this way ...