Nikola Tesla Airport
An Air Serbia flight bearing former and current government officials closely tied to the outgoing regime landed in Moscow early on Nov. 4 after initially being forced to return to Belgrade on the evening of Nov. 3. The reason was one passenger’s failure to undergo a required security check.
After multiple media broke the story, the news was confirmed by Air Serbia. According to the carrier, the flight in question was ordered to turn back once the Nikola Tesla Airport’s security services informed Air Serbia that one passenger required additional security checks.
The passenger in question was Aleksandar Vulin, a close associate of ex-Serbian president Aleksandar Vucic who held a number of top-level offices over the years, including defense minister, interior minister and Security Information Agency chief.
His fellow-passengers were caretaker minister without portfolio Nenad Popovic and Dusan Bajatovic, the director of Serbia's state-owned natural gas provider Srbijagas.
Following the flight’s Belgrade grounding, Vulin phoned into Informer TV’s live broadcast and claimed he was being subject to politically-based harassment. He also stated that the purpose of his trip to Moscow was to fight for “an extension of [Serbia’s] natural gas deal” with Russia.
Bajatovic, meanwhile, told N1 that he was unaware of why Vulin or Popovic were traveling to the Russian capital, but that his goal was to resolve natural gas supply and payment issues caused by the recent bankruptcy of Alta Bank, where Srbijagas had an account.
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