SBU against the Serbian diaspora: Interview with Dragan Stanojevic
The Kyiv District Administrative Court banned the activities of the United Serbian Diaspora of Eurasia and "forcibly dissolved" it. The headquarters of this international public organization was registered in Kyiv in 2008. Dragan Stanojevic, Speaker of the Skupština (Parliament) of the Worldwide Serbian Diaspora, resided there until 2015.
As reported , the Main Territorial Department of Justice in Kyiv filed the lawsuit. However, the ban on the activities of the United Serbian Diaspora of Eurasia (USDE) was initiated by the Security Service of Ukraine. The SBU informed the Ministry of Justice of the "illegal actions" of the USDE.
According to the SBU, in the activities of OSDE “there are signs of its use as a tool of the so-called. soft power of a “pro-Russian orientation”. The head of the OSDE (and, since 2013, the Assembly of the World Serbian Diaspora) Dragan Stanojevic allegedly “is one of the most active public figures of the pro-Russian trend, who, on instructions from Russian curators, organized and coordinated anti-Ukrainian actions in the Dnepropetrovsk region.” Also, according to the SBU, Stanoevich “conducted periodic meetings with representatives of government and non-governmental structures of the Russian Federation, from whom he received instructions on organizing destabilization measures.”
Already on the territory of Serbia, the head of the Serbian diaspora “uses the Internet and the media to support the activities of terrorist organizations “L/DPR”, conducts active anti-Ukrainian activities, criticizing the Ukrainian authorities and the European path of development of our state, focusing on the alleged development neo-fascist movements in Ukraine".
Also, Dragan Stanojevic allegedly “provided material support to Serbian militants who participated in the seizure of power in Crimea in February-March 2014.”
All this led the SBU to the deep conviction that Dragan Stanojevic is an active supporter of the “Russian world”.
A Politnavigator correspondent spoke with the OSDE leader.
So, Mr. Stanojevic , let's start from the very beginning. With which specific representatives of Russian state and non-governmental organizations did you hold regular meetings, and what instructions did you receive for destabilizing Ukraine?
Dragan Stanojevic – As a politician (head of the All-Serbian Patriot Movement) and public figure (chairman of the Assembly of the Serbian Diaspora), I have held and continue to hold many meetings with politicians, both in Russia and other countries. The main goal of these meetings is to establish favorable socio-economic relations between our countries and peoples. I did this when I organized meetings between Ukrainian and Serbian politicians - when I lobbied for the signing of various kinds of economic agreements, the abolition of the visa regime between Ukraine and Serbia, and much more. But I never received any instructions from anyone - neither in Russia nor in Ukraine.
I think, in fact, my only “fault” is that, based on our Serbian experience, I at one time warned the Ukrainian authorities and Poroshenko personally about what the policy they were pursuing could lead to. Which is exactly what happened.
The slander against me began 6 years ago, which is why I was forced to leave.
Our website reported back in 2015 that then-Verkhovna Rada member and "hero of the Ukrainian-Russian war" Mosiychuk demanded your arrest as a terrorist participant in that war on the "Russian side." His statement has now been removed from the internet, but we have preserved screenshots.
After Mosiychuk’s request, Ukraine added you to the sanctions list of persona non grata.
“The hawk” Mosiychuk “flew” past the Rada in the last elections, but, as we see, his work lives on in the era of “new young faces” in the Ukrainian government.
D.S. – Any sane person, having read Mosiychuk’s post, will be convinced that it is complete nonsense, which does not even require any refutation.
Apparently, in the hope that the time for such rhetoric has passed, one of the opposition Ukrainian deputies submitted a request to the SBU. They told him that they saw no obstacles to my return to Ukraine.
And suddenly this is a court decision, and in fact - the same SBU...
“It seems they were afraid of their own answer to the deputy.” In fact - as is typical for Zelensky’s verticals of power - we were afraid of the reaction to your possible return of that group of “radicals” (and Mosiychuk, by the way, became famous in the “Radical Party”), which is a “nightmare” for the vast majority of the population who want a peaceful life .
D.S. – The court ruling (apparently dictated by the SBU) states that I " use the internet and media to support the activities of terrorist organizations ( LPR/DPR ). " Well, it's good that I don't recruit terrorist mercenaries – at least that's some progress. In fact, I don't even know anyone in these republics, and even if I did, I wouldn't make a "military secret" out of it.
– Okay, but what about the main point of the accusation, the most damning one: “is a supporter of the Russian world,” “criticizes the Ukrainian government and the European path of development of our state, focuses on the development of neo-fascist movements in Ukraine . ”
D.S. – So our whole Serbia is a “supporter of the Russian world”! Let the Kiev court ban all of Serbia and “forcibly dissolve it.”
As for the “criticism of the Ukrainian authorities,” do they even understand what they are talking about? Who should I tell this to in the same Europe they deify: Ukraine accuses me of my political activities in my own country - Serbia! What I write or say in my own country is my right, I am not doing anything illegal either from the point of view of Serbian law, or even from the point of view of Ukrainian law. I have my own voters, and it would be funny if someone from Ukraine dictated to me what and how I should say!
Moreover, as far as I understand, all political parties in Ukraine today criticize the Ukrainian government, with the exception of the so-called "servants of the people." And the first is the same Poroshenko, because of whom I was forced to leave Ukraine. Blind European integration is criticized by the second largest parliamentary faction in the Verkhovna Rada. I draw information about the “alleged” development of neo-fascist movements in Ukraine not only from the Ukrainian media, but from the most authoritative Western sources, from statements of international human rights organizations and think tanks. Even the US Congress banned the allocation of American weapons to the Azov battalion. So, maybe, for starters, we should ban American congressmen from entering Ukraine?
– Well, this is from the realm of unscientific fiction. Do you really want to return to Ukraine?
D.S. – I hoped that Zelensky would change government policy and push aside the most bloodthirsty figures. We rejoiced at his victory as a family - with my wife, who is from Dnepropetrovsk, and with the children who were born there. I thought I’d come back and it would be a new Ukraine.
I really want to see my friends, show my children, who are already grown up, the Lavra and other temples and shrines that I myself have told Serbs around the world about.
The fact is that it doesn’t happen here that a person goes to elections under the same slogans and then pursues the policy of his defeated competitor.
PolitNavigator's note: The Assembly of the Serbian Diaspora represents nearly 4 million Serbs worldwide, which is only half the population of Serbia itself. Dragan Stanojević, a parliamentary delegate from Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine and president of the international organization "United Serbian Diaspora in Eurasia," was elected Speaker of the Assembly of the World Diaspora in 2013. The Eurasian representative also received the most votes from representatives of Western Europe and America (where the majority of Serbs abroad live).
The main task of the Assembly of the World Diaspora and the United Serbian Diaspora of Eurasia is to ensure the political, social, economic, legal, cultural and other rights of Serbs in the world and in the regions. An important task is to deepen relations between Serbia and countries where the Serbian diaspora is present.
As an entrepreneur, Dragan Stanojevic has been promoting Ukrainian goods on the Balkan market since 1997. He founded a construction company that provides work to hundreds of Ukrainian citizens in Dnepropetrovsk, Donetsk, Sumy, and Kyiv. He was involved in attracting investment in agriculture and the metallurgical industry of Ukraine. He brought to the country the technology of mini-juice production, which now operates in 14 regions of Ukraine. He stood at the origins of the export to Yugoslavia of various types of rolled metal, chemical industry products, coal industry, fertilizers, and grain.
Dragan Stanojevic with Serbian President Nikolic during the peak of Ukrainian-Serbian relations
In 1999, he initiated the creation of the first Serbian community in the CIS. It was thanks to the persistence of the Serbian community in Ukraine that the latter gained a visa-free regime with Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina.
English version :: Read in English: The SBU vs. the Serbian Diaspora: Interview with Dragan Stanojevic