Father, son and godfather in the arms trade

Before 2012, there were no private arms dealers that were even close to Jugoimport SDPR in terms of volume of business. Since the arrival of the Serbian Progressive Party in power, some private companies dealing in arms trade have flourished. Their closeness with SNS is mutually fruitful, and the best harvests are during the election campaigns, retired general Zdravko Ponoš, former chief of the General Staff, and today the vice president of the People's Party, told "Vreme".

"WEATHER": How, next to a monopolist like the SDPR-a, a private firm such as GIM, can take such a large part "cakes" in the trade in arms and military equipment?

BE HEALTHY: SDPR has not been a monopolist for a long time. And that's not a problem. The problem is that a state-owned company with many years of tradition and references is pushed into an unequal position compared to newly founded private companies without references in the arms trade business. This can happen for two reasons. First - through private companies, they can perform jobs on the edge or beyond the border of compliance with international regulations with less reputational risk. It is a mechanism that allows one's state administration to distance itself from the work done if things go wrong. Another reason is that the enormous profits made in this business are transferred to private accounts in much more flexible ways than is possible from the accounts of a state-owned company. I have the impression that the second of the stated reasons, more specifically interest, is so dominant that it has rendered the first meaningless, because the work is done through persons who are in family relations with the very top of the regime.

Who is behind it?, on whose behalf is it being done??

Arms trade is a very specific business. That is why the system of issuing permits for dealing in arms and military equipment was designed to reduce the risk of corruption and other abuses. In order to obtain permission from the Ministry of Commerce, the consent of the ministries of defense, interior, foreign affairs and BIA is necessary. Such a system was supposed to ensure not only a professional, competent and state-responsible review of all aspects for which the said authorities are responsible, but also to reduce the possibility of corruption. It would be enough if at least one of the aforementioned bodies is not party-affiliated or corrupt in some other way, that is, privatized, so that influence trading is stopped. However, it only works when the system is not institutionally collapsed. In Vučić's version of the state, things are reversed. Not a single institution and state body can function according to the professional norms and rules of the profession. Everything, especially where big money is involved, is decided in one place, and all state authorities only serve to put a stamp on it and ask nothing. Thus, it is ensured that privileged companies have express passage through the state administration, and that same administration has the task of regularly slowing down and preventing the others from doing business. It is enough that one of the authorities does not issue a permit or consent, so that it is impossible for a company that is not closely connected to the regime to operate. After all, it is a system that the SNS regime brought to perfection and applied in all areas - from obtaining building permits and paperwork in the field of pharmacy to arms trade. The most liberal form of functioning is paying rackets to get unquestionable consent or permission or resolution. Of course, with the condition of finding someone who knows someone... Arms trade is not that liberal either. Because only a few people can reach the one who really decides.

Nebojša Stefanović denies it, but documents and photos say otherwise - Where does the name Branka come from?, father of the Minister of Internal Affairs Stefanović on the official request for the entry of a delegation of arms dealers in Krusik? And where is he from at the company's anniversary celebration??

In the paper, which the public has access to, it is clearly stated that Branko Stefanović is visiting "Krušik" as part of a delegation from the GIM company. Minister Stefanović first claimed that his father was not involved in the arms trade business, then that he was not the owner of the GIM company, which no one claimed. In the end, he refused to answer questions on the mentioned topic, and Vučić, as a man with a valid law school diploma caught in the performance of the job of the president of the state, ruled that Branko Stefanović had not committed any criminal act. That should have been the end of this saga.

How much damage to the state is caused by such arrangements, and supposedly it is "Pear" even in losses? And why was a lower price per contingent given for GIM than for SDPR? The explanation that came from "Krusika" not very convincing.

Such arrangements cause multiple damage to the interest of the state. It is quite clear that the privileged position that GIM has in terms of prices is to the direct detriment of producers, and also of the state-owned company SDPR. No less a problem are the working conditions in the Serbian dedicated industry, where workers often get hurt. Enormous profits end up in the pockets of traders, while factories, employees and the state remain short-handed. Production technology in some of the factories stopped in the seventies of the last century, and safety measures at work are sacrificed to meet unreasonable delivery deadlines. Aside from the fact that the state occasionally covers loopholes in the operations of special industry factories from the budget.

And the fact that the weapons end up in a country that is under an international embargo, even though everything is paperwork "clean"?

A special dimension is the involvement of Serbian companies in the international arms trade, which ends up in areas affected by civil war, and in the hands of extremist Islamist armed groups. This causes incalculable damage to Serbia's reputation in the world. Is it necessary to explain separately why the great powers that support one of the warring parties are quite careful not to leave a direct fingerprint in their arms supply. And the Vučić regime was determined to involve Serbia in dirty business for other people's state interests and its own personal interests. It is quite clear that it is not about the state interests of Serbia. Just as they were not discussed when a Serbian passport was issued to Yingluck Shinawatra, the former prime minister of Thailand, for whom an international warrant was issued.

How do you interpret the fact that the documents about the involvement of Stefanovic's father in the arms trade for Yemen appeared on the Bulgarian website?, which the minister claims to have only about a hundred followers, What is behind that??

Arms Watch is not unknown to those who are interested in the field it follows, neither in Serbia nor in the world. He attracted the attention of the wider public in Serbia when he published material documenting the involvement of Serbian private companies, especially the GIM company and Minister Stefanović's father, in the arms trade that ends up in the hands of Islamist groups. It is indicative that, after the publication of the mentioned material, the site is under constant hacker attacks, which are claimed to be coming from Serbia. It seems that the regime shows aspirations to apply its standards of media freedom outside the borders of Serbia. It is known that a brutal civil war is currently raging in Yemen with the indirect conflict of some of the more powerful regional and world powers. It is currently the area of ​​the most massive civilian casualties in the world, and the situation qualifies as a humanitarian disaster. The public in Serbia has the right to know how the weapons produced in Serbia, which were taken from the factories by the company for which the father of the Minister of Police works, ended up in the hands of one of the warring parties. Did the government in Serbia perhaps take a side in that conflict, for what reason, what is the national interest, who decided on it and when? What did advisor Tony Blair advise on this matter and whether his advice might reflect the interest of the person who pays him, because it seems that he was not paid from the Serbian budget after all.

Where in Bulgaria?, are the US interests behind it?, as some claim?

It doesn't really matter where he works or whose passport a journalist has who publishes a well-argued story on a topic of great public interest, and therefore a reason for the headache of some government that prefers to operate in the dark. In addition, some domestic journalists, specifically BIRN, wrote about this topic in great detail. I have no doubt that Washington knows what Vučić is doing both in Serbia and outside of Serbia. And whether Washington has a problem with that or not, that is a question for the American administration. Serbia and its citizens certainly have a problem with the Vučić regime, and we will have to solve that problem ourselves, regardless of what anyone outside says or does. It would be easier if Washington, Brussels, Berlin showed more interest in the state of democracy, human rights and institutions, but they currently have other priorities in Serbia. As for the stories about the internal turmoil at the top of the regime, there is no one there who can tell Vučić in good faith to visit a doctor, let alone to test autonomy in his actions. It was not by chance that he surrounded himself with people with fake diplomas and various other moral and work deficits and compromising inherited files.

What is happening with the SDPR??

SDPR is a state-owned company under full party control of the SNS, more specifically, it is entrusted with the operational management of the senior members of the Zemun branch of the SNS. Of course, even that team did not pass any internship or security check to deal with the work that the SDPR does. But SNS does not normally practice this in matters of special state interest. There are some other interesting things about the SDPR and the current steering wheel. We have a situation where Branko Stefanović is engaged in the company GIM and together with the owner of GIM is the founder of another company registered for arms trade, his younger son Nemanja is one of the co-owners of a company from the same branch together with the director of the SDPR Jugoslav Petković, and his older son Nebojša is the Minister of Police and issues licenses for arms trade. It is quite clear that the members of the Stefanović family do not have any references that qualify them to successfully engage in the business of international arms trade, apart from their closeness and loyalty to President Vučić. That seems to be quite enough in a regime where power is personal and where the state is treated as private property. Every day it becomes more and more clear that Serbia is ruled by one man with the help of his own and with the support of only a few other families. Such a system of government is usually found in some other entities, and it is deeply opposed to the structure and functioning of a normal state.