Media: Aleksandar Vulin Soon to Be Replaced as State Security Chief

Aleksandar Vulin (BETAPHOTO/MILOS MISKOV/MO)

The president of the Movement of Socialists, Aleksandar Vulin, will soon leave the helm of the Serbian Security and Information Agency (BIA) and be succeeded by someone from the Serbian Progressive Party, the Danas newspapers reported on Sept. 15.

The paper also said that the agency’s deputy chief would be picked from the ranks of the Socialist Party of Serbia. The post has been vacant since Vulin was appointed.

“The exact date of the new appointment is unknown, but it will be soon,” Danas reported. Aleksandar Vulin has been keeping a low profile and rumor has it that he could be replaced by Serbia's ambassador to the United States Marko Djuric.

Vulin took over as the state security agency’s chief in a ceremony on Dec. 2, last year, swapping posts with then interior minister Bratislav Gasic. Vulin was sanctioned by the U.S. Department of the Treasury early in July, after the Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control found out that the Serbian official was engaged in international organized crime and illegal narcotics trade and that he had abused his position.