Dedicated jobs of a pensioner

As the "old" Chekhov saying goes: "The gun that appears in the first act will fire a bullet in the last." This is the story of how something that started as a sideshow threatens to do much more damage than could have been imagined in the fall of 2017 when the "gun" shyly appeared in the frame.

Namely, the Minister of Internal Affairs of Serbia, Nebojša Stefanović, and the President of Serbia and the Serbian Progressive Party, Aleksandar Vučić, admitted last week what has been said in the public for almost two years: the minister's father, Branko Stefanović, is involved in the sale of arms from the special industry factory "Krušik" from Valid for partners in Saudi Arabia through GIM.

You can already hear it after the above sentence - and where we said it like that, we didn't mean it like that. However, the fact is that after the publication of new stories by the international specialized portal "Armswatch" and BIRN Serbia, both Vučić and Stefanović forgot that they had previously resolutely denied that Branko Stefanović, a retiree from Telekom Srbija, was in any way an actor in lucrative and controversial business of international arms sales. Now it's common place, they admitted, he really is in the business and they tried to get the "ball" into the court of legality. Of course, it's about the expected spin attempt. That's why they're asking now - and who cares, who broke the law and the like, those series of radical appeals to law and order.

From the casually mentioned matter in the KRIK investigation in the fall of 2017, when Minister Stefanović's father was mentioned in the Politicians' Assets database, we came in two years to the fact that the president of the state and the party is going to TV stations to explain the case. During that time, those who shouldn't be are still silent: the Anti-Corruption Agency and the Public Prosecutor's Office and the Anti-Corruption Department. Or, simply put, the institutions that should be the first to investigate this whole drama and determine whether there are any violations of the law regarding conflicts of interest, or whether there is a criminal offense in the area of ​​influence peddling.

BRANKO AND FRIENDS

About the father of the Minister of Internal Affairs "Vreme" wrote in the issue of March 21, 2019 (issue 1472) at the moment when this man found himself at the center of the "Hotel Šumadija" affair and when BIRN Serbia showed how this modest pensioner went around the city with money in his backpack and offered cash for Hotel "Šumadija". The entire system of connections of Stefanović Sr. and his associates/partners who formally found themselves in the role of those who take over the hotel on Banovo Brdo for a pittance from the previous owner, with the assistance of masked thugs who broke the entrance to the facility, is described in detail in the research of this editorial office.

From that period, Branko Stefanović's statement to TV N1 is remembered in which he says that he is stupid - which was a comment on a journalist's question to explain his role. Before that, in the fall of 2018, Vuk Jeremić, the president of the People's Party, described him as a man heavily involved in the arms trade, but this was without "tangible" proof.

And as it happens, when journalists started to do this, evidence for Vuk Jeremic's claims soon appeared. If his statement could be negated by a statement saying that these were lies and untruths, then it was difficult for the authorities to deny the involvement of the minister's father when BIRN published a document that clearly shows that Branko Stefanović - or Don Branko, as they call him after Belgrade - he really went to the company "Krusik" as a representative of the GIM company and led arms dealers from Saudi Arabia.

Although he is not formally the owner of that company and only indirectly has ties to his long-time friend Goran Todorović (a merchant from Belgrade and a member of the board of KK Partizan whose sixteen-year-old son is said to be one of the most talented basketball players in Serbia), the fact that he went with him to " Krušik" is an indication that he is certainly involved in all these affairs. In what exact way, what exactly is his function, whether and how much he earned from those jobs, and whether the money thus earned was later invested in the purchase of hotels, cafes, business premises and the construction of summer houses - all of this should be the subject of an extensive investigation. prosecution investigations, when that institution is capable of doing so.

Therefore, it has been unequivocally known for almost a year that Branko Stefanović is directly involved in the arms trade business. And a year before that, the Espresso portal from "Kurir's" media group, transmitting Krik's research on the assets of Serbian politicians, wrote in traditional tabloid fashion that Nebojsa Stefanović's father was in business with arms dealers.

However, as it happens, that story originated from the performance of an opposition politician, and confirmed by the media, which was denounced by the general public as "spy-mercenary" and "anti-Serb", did not have an echo that would disturb anyone. The regime crossed it like a "small stream" and continued on, not looking back at all.

SERBIA ARMS TERRORISTS

The situation changed at the beginning of September. Then, a story supported by documents began to be shared on social networks that Serbian companies sell weapons to buyers from Saudi Arabia with the assistance of American intermediaries, which ultimately end up with rebels/terrorists in Yemen. Namely, the specialized English-language portal "Armswatch" published a series of three sequels that it called "Serbia leaks". It describes in detail what was sold by "Jugoimport SDPR" and "Krušik" to buyers in the Middle East, revealing even the American middleman in the deal with all his passport information.

Extensive material is still available today on those pages of "Armswatch", although at one point the Bulgarian journalist Diliana Gajtanjieva, who worked on these stories, announced on the social network Twitter that the site was brought down by a bot attack from Serbia. This added more fuel to the fire, so suspicions deepened beyond measure: Serbia is caught in an international conspiracy, sponsors terrorists, and some of its highest officials are involved through their relatives (read Nebojsa Stefanović involved through his father Branko).

Nebojša Stefanović was the first to react: his interpretation, paraphrased, was - his dad has nothing to do with it, that portal is followed by a hundred people, it's all a lie and that's it. When journalists confronted him with the fact that "Armswatch", like BIRN before, published a document confirming that his father was involved in the arms trade, he said that it was just an ordinary piece of paper and that it meant nothing. . So, the recording means nothing, the document means nothing, the statement means nothing - but nothing at all that indicates in a real way the involvement of people from the regime in corruption and crime, interpreted by the people who govern Serbia today.

photo: birn

However, the embarrassment and potential problems caused by the fact that someone made a series - the regime in Serbia-weapons-terrorists in Yemen and Syria. This caused the authorities to need special explanations. That's why the Ministry of Defense and the company "Krušik" immediately announced that no one from Serbia has ever sold weapons illegally (the end users are always from Saudi Arabia or the Emirates), and that GIM, a company associated with Minister Stefanović's father, she did not receive weapons at preferential prices.

Two days after "Krusik" wanted to prove and show in an extensive statement that GIM is not privileged in relation to the state company "Jugoimport SDPR", BIRN Serbia published a new text in which, based on the contract between GIM and SDPR with In the last few years, "Krušik" clearly sees that "Krušik" has misled the public. They themselves confirmed this in their answers to BIRN, requesting that it be taken into account that they do important work for the state and that such stories can harm the company and Serbia in general.

This is one of the most interesting moments because the management of "Krušik" clearly does not mind that they give preferential prices to people who are directly connected to certain ministers and thereby potentially harm the company, but they invite journalists not to speak publicly about it.

BIRN published its story, and also published a picture from the celebration in "Krušik" this year, where Goran Todorović and Branko Stefanović were also present, presumably as business associates.

OWNER OF TRUTH

When he saw that Stefanović could not and did not know how to deal with the truth, and it concerned him and his father, Vučić invited himself to TV Pink and on the morning of Friday, September 20, 2019, explained various things, as usual, including this with weapons.

Applying his tactic of talking to a non-existent interlocutor (the principle of "they will recognize themselves"), he again tried to discredit BIRN by telling the old song about how BIRN lied to the public about pumping out the pits in Tamnava in 2014/2015. and then use that disqualification in the story about Stefanović as a privileged arms dealer. Unfortunately for him, as in the story of Tamnava, it is the same now - the documents are inexorable, the facts are clear, so after the insults, Vučić switched to spinning, that is, to trying to tell us that the real story is something else. According to him - let's have someone prove first that Serbia sells weapons to terrorists (there is no direct evidence), and then let's see if Stefanović committed a criminal act, because if not, interprets Vučić, there is no story.

The President of Serbia once again proved to be a good tabloid editor, but, as is known from his work biography, a bad journalist. Namely, the criminal offense should be established by the prosecution in an investigation that includes checking the entire operations of the GIM company, complete financial forensics (a large part of which has already been published by the weekly NIN), determine how this company operated and why it suddenly started doing well, how much earned, why was it necessary for the father of the Minister of Internal Affairs to negotiate or mediate, whether and how much money he earned from those jobs, and where that money ended up... And so on.

The indications are serious, as well as the suspicion that GIM suddenly became a "player" when Minister Stefanović's father got involved, which could indicate that the management of "Krušik" "felt" that he should be given something more favorable. The prosecutor should determine whether and in what way the minister is involved in his father's affairs, and if so, to see if there is evidence of influence peddling. Also, he would have to further check the activities of the GIM company, which grew so suddenly and needlessly in that specific case.

photo: Presidency of Serbia

If they allegedly spent almost a year investigating Sergej Trifunović and the foundation he runs because it helps treat children, it is certainly in the public interest to investigate this arms trade and make the findings of those investigations public. Serbia knows that Vučić and Stefanović know the answers to all these questions, so they could share it with prosecutors and inspectors so that they can further investigate the entire case that threatens to damage Serbia's reputation. And that right now when Vučić is in New York for the annual session of the United Nations Assembly.

That's why it won't work if they start stopping him in the corridors and asking if and how Serbia sells weapons to terrorists. And everything is happening at the moment when he approached the solution of the "Kosovo problem" with so much determination and when he gave in to the opposition's pressure regarding the organization of elections in the spring of 2020.