Belgrade-Moscow: one-way ticket

The handshake hanging in the air best symbolizes the relations between Russia and Serbia

At the President of Serbia Alexander Vucic burns again - moreover, he found himself between two fires. On the one hand, Belgrade is booming spy scandal, connected with recruitment activity of Russia. On the other hand, there is a scandal involving the supply of weapons, apparently, to one of the closest associates of the president. Vuchich himself is not trusted in Moscow - due to old bad memories, despite all his helpfulness, they consider CIA agent. But first things first.

On November 17, a video recording of the meeting of two men in a Belgrade parking lot was published on YouTube. One of them is presumably a Serbian officer, the second is an employee of the embassy, ​​a lieutenant colonel of the Russian army Georgy Kleban, looking like a villain from a comic book of the 80s. On the record, the military attaché of the Russian Federation hands over to the Serb money bag, after which he goes to the car.

Not your bag, man?

A few more are captured on the video intimate meetings these men Among them is a joint trip to the bar, as well as the transfer of a bag (perhaps with Chinese secondhand?) and, of course, a sacramental envelope. At the very end of the video, a Serbian officer sits in a car and counts money from an envelope (PROFIT!!!).

Uncle, what are you doing, bills from the bank!

According to RTS, the Security Service of Serbia confirmed the authenticity of the recording.
According to Blic, Kleban worked at the Russian embassy in Belgrade, however was fired in June of this year.

According to The Insider, Kleban has been the deputy military attaché of the Russian Embassy in Serbia for defense issues since 2016, but now he is no longer mentioned on the website of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs - it turned into an Internet site. At the same time, until the beginning of October, his name could be found there, now it is visible in the cached version. Just like with the maniac Sokolov, entertaining the French collaborators in Crimea.

The Serbian Ministry of Foreign Affairs reported that Kleban held the position of assistant attaché, but left this position in June 2019, Radio Svoboda reports. Kleban mogh will indeed leave the territory of Serbia in July. Such a conclusion can be made from a post on Instagram the son of a diplomat who wrote that, most likely, he will not return to the country. And isn't Putin right, who wants to take control of social networks?

It is also worth noting that the Bellingcat investigator Hristo Grozev published on his Twitter evidence that it was Kleban who was on the record. He believes that the Russians could be quietly declared persona non grata and deported from Serbia.

“The video, which was shot from different angles and appears to be part of a well-prepared surveillance operation, shows a man exchanging bags with another man. Indeed, the man on the video is the deputy military attaché of the Russian Federation Georgy Kleban," he wrote.
Grozev also attached screenshots from video recordings and photos from embassy events, which apparently show the same person.

The investigator did not miss an opportunity for advertising and noted that he used the Microsoft Azure facial recognition service. On social networks, he claims that Georgy Kleban is registered in Moscow at the address of the Military Academy of the General Staff, and the address of his wife's registration coincides with the address of the dormitory of the military unit of the Airborne Forces Special Forces. But now Kleban will be moved closer to Myshkin and Chepyga, who framed the whole of the GRU, registered their Chuspanzers to their native unit. Will the three of them take pictures in Insta?

The long-suffering president of Serbia, Chey high growth irritates Putin in the same way that the monumental Yanukovych irritated him, confirmed that the country's security services discovered espionage from Russia, however... he said that it will not affect relations with Moscow. As "Europeyskaya Pravda" reports with reference to PTC, Vucic said this at a press conference on Thursday. What, of course, is this former minister of information under Slobo lowered himself below the plinth.

However, Vučić still addressed the public about the espionage case and told the details. According to the Serbian president, the video was shot on December 24, 2018. The Serbian agent was the object of surveillance by the special services because of contacts with Croatian counterintelligence. If Vuchich does not recover, the agent turned out to be a multitasker. After all, in this case, information about his connections with Russian intelligence fled straight to NATO.

Vučić says that special services have repeatedly documented Kleban's contacts with a Serbian agent. The Serbian side also has evidence of the activities of other Russian spies in Serbia, the president says. That is not surprising at allafter all, Belgrade itself allowed the Russians to settle in the "cooperation center" in Niš.

"Only 10 contacts were recorded with Kleban, we also have photo, audio and video documentation on which he gave money," said the Serbian president, portraying righteous indignation. He added that Kleban is no longer on the territory of Serbia.

At the same time, Vuchich said that he does not forget about everything that Russia has done for Serbia. He reminded that Serbia became the only European country that did not impose sanctions against the Russian Federation. "We will not change our policy towards Russia, which we believe fraternal and a friendly country... but we will strengthen our own intelligence defense," Vucic said. "I just asked the Russian ambassador: Why? I do not see the logic in this", Vucic said, expressing confidence that the President of Russia is Vladimir Putin was not informed about Kleban's actions. It sounded very funny, since Putin personally coordinates all espionage operations abroad, meeting daily with Naryshkin and Patrushev.

In connection with the appearance of the recording, the Serbian authorities began an investigation, and on November 21, President Aleksandar Vucic met with the Russian ambassador to Serbia Alexander Botsan-Kharchenko. On Thursday, Serbian President Vučić confirmed that he plans to hold talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin on December 4.

And the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation predictably declared that the story with the video recording of the possible transfer of money to the Russian military Serbian official is a provocation before the meeting with Putin. Of course, the issue needs to be hushed up somehow, especially since Russian spies often spend money on a luxurious life or launder illegal income.

As you know, in October 2016, Serbia deported a group of Russians involved in organizing a coup attempt in Montenegro. True, this was done in private to allow the "brothers" to save face. This action was preceded by an emergency visit to Belgrade by the head of the Security Council of the Russian Federation Nikolai Patrushev on the ego of the famous cocaine "Ile", who then had to apologize and lie that official Moscow was not informed about the plans of the "putschists".

And last year, against the background of constant protests, information appeared that Vučić's closest ally, the Minister of Internal Affairs Nebojsa Stefanovic, may abuse his official position and be involved in corruption schemes, since his father, apparently, arms dealer of the "Krushyk" plant in Serbian Valevo.

But will the events of twenty years ago repeat themselves in Belgrade? Alas, due to subversive activity in the EU of the same Makron - displacement for now multi-vector Vuchich - at the hands of even more pro-Russian forces.

Joseph Hayych

analyst "William D. Donovan Foundation for International Peace"