Aleksandar Vučić described as political interference the return of an Air Serbia plane operating a flight from Belgrade to Moscow. On board the aircraft was Aleksandar Vulin – leader of the pro-Russian Movement of Socialists and chairman of the Supervisory Board of the state-owned company Srbijagas.
“To see how quickly our country has turned into a real ‘banana republic’, it is enough to look at what happened with Vulin last night,” Vučić said in a video address posted on social media. He added that the incident had caused financial damage and harmed Serbia’s international standing.
The former Serbian president suggested that representatives of the new political authorities following the victory of the “Student List” in the parliamentary elections on 25 October may have influenced the decision to turn the plane back.
Plane turned back over additional checks
Flight JU134 was turned back to Belgrade’s Nikola Tesla Airport just a few minutes before entering Russian airspace. According to Serbian media, airport officials established that one of the passengers had not undergone the mandatory security check.
The passenger was identified as Vulin. Also on board were Srbijagas director Dušan Bajatović and Serbian People’s Party leader Nenad Popović. According to Nova.rs, the order to turn the plane back was issued by Milan Kuč, the director of corporate security at Belgrade Airport.
Air Serbia confirmed that the plane had returned after receiving information from airport authorities requiring additional security checks on one of the passengers. The airline said the decision had been taken in accordance with the applicable procedures.
Vulin denied violating the rules
Aleksandar Vulin dismissed reports of oversights during the checks as lies and described the incident as an attempt at political revenge. He said he was travelling on official business related to extending the gas agreement between Serbia and Russia.
Dušan Bajatović told Serbian television that he did not know why Vulin and Popović were travelling to Moscow. He said his own visit was related to problems with gas deliveries and payments following the Alta Bank case.
After additional checks of the passengers and luggage, the plane took off for Moscow again shortly before 2:00 a.m. Later, Vulin announced that he had arrived in the Russian capital, where he would hold a series of meetings related to extending the gas agreement.
Sources: bta.bg, n1info.rs, tanjug.rs