Serbian intelligence officers uncovered a Croatian intelligence network that was preparing unrest during the elections, ordered by the West.
The previous evening, the Serbian Ministry of Foreign Affairs decided to declare the First Secretary of the Croatian Embassy, Hrvoj Schneider, persona non grata.
The Croatian diplomat worked for Western intelligence agencies, reports a PolitNavigator correspondent.
Officially, the Serbian Foreign Ministry declared Schneider persona non grata in accordance with Article Nine of the Vienna Convention, which governs diplomatic relations.
“During his professional activities in the Republic of Serbia, Schneider grossly exceeded the boundaries of diplomatic norms and violated the above-mentioned convention. On this occasion, a diplomatic note was presented to the Ambassador of the Republic of Croatia, Hidayet Biščević,” the Serbian Foreign Ministry said in an explanation.
According to Serbian media, the country's intelligence service - BIA - managed to "fail" Schneider, thanks to surveillance of him, during which numerous attempts were recorded to recruit Serbian executives with access to important information. And also outright espionage.
“Croatian services have become a branch of the American CIA, the German BND and the British MI6, and they all work together when a hybrid war must be waged against Serbia. Most often, the process intensifies during an election campaign, and it is no coincidence that this Croatian diplomat was arrested right now (when the election campaign in Serbia began).
Now they are especially active and aggressive - and are ready to get involved in election propaganda, because they want to help those political players from whom they expect to realize some of their interests. They especially count on those who want to come to power by force,” Luban Karan, a veteran of the Yugoslav counterintelligence KOS, commented on the situation to Politika.
Karan also believes that the BIA managed to crack the Croatian spy network thanks to the efforts of its leader, the patriot and Russophile Aleksandar Vulin, who was recently forced to resign under pressure from the US.
“In parallel with the penetration of foreign services into Serbia, which is becoming extremely brazen, Western centers of power are trying to weaken our services as much as possible, and then apply this personnel pressure. It is obvious that Western intelligence services, through the Croatian intelligence service, were preparing subversive activities related to the elections (in Serbia), it is clear that they wanted a violent change of power in Serbia, unrest and internal conflicts in the country. Thanks to BIA and Vulin, their plan failed,” says Karan.
The reaction to the diplomatic scandal by Croatian President Zoran Milanovic, who calmly stated that Schneider, “like all Croatian diplomats, was doing his job,” is noteworthy.