LOCAL PRESS

Dacic: We are not satisfied with the implementation of the Brussels agreement so far (Studio B)

Belgrade is not satisfied with the implementation of the Brussels agreement so far, as the crucial thing – setting up a community of Serb municipalities – has not seen implementation, Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic said Tuesday. The Albanians are persistently avoiding doing that, but what was agreed must be done, Dacic told a press conference after a meeting he had with Russia’s Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin in Belgrade today. Dacic said that Pristina was unwilling to protect Serbian heritage and was being rewarded for that with a number of European countries supporting its UNESCO bid. Watching silently when an Orthodox Christian church is being desecrated is the same as approving that, Dacic said.

PM to ask party for permission “to decide on early polls” (B92)

Aleksandar Vucic will on Sunday ask his party, the SNS, to allow him to decide on whether to call early parliamentary elections before the SNS Assembly meets. According to a statement issued by the party on Wednesday, the prime minister and SNS leader has scheduled a meeting of the main board of the SNS for January 17, when “the current political situation” will be discussed. The SNS Assembly will meet on February 13. Speaking on Tuesday, Vucic said that he cannot make a decision on elections alone and that he will discuss the issue with his associates, ministers, and the Serbian President. “I hope that citizens of Serbia will soon have an opportunity to choose better,” Vucic said. Asked “whether that means early parliamentary elections will also be held,” the prime minister said, ” everyone wants them.” The possibility has been raised on several occasions during 2015, and while most high ranking SNS officials would publicly say they were in favor of going to the polls, later statements would reveal that Vucic was against. The last time the topic came up was in October, when Vucic said he was opposed to the idea as it would be “irresponsible” to organize early polls “at a time we have to deal with (Pristina’s bid to join) UNESCO and the opening of (EU membership talks) chapters.” “Whether they (elections) would happen in six, eight, or ten months, I don’t know, but in the next three, four, five – there won’t be any. My job is to make decisions in the interest of citizens,” he told TV Pink at the time. Several days ago, Belgrade daily Vecernje Novosti reported that there was also the possibility of “a broader reshuffle” of the government.

Russian diplomatic slap to Serbia (Blic)

Along with his meetings with officials in Belgrade, Deputy Prime Minister of Russia Dmitry Rogozin has also met with the leader of the party of the opposition Serbian Radical Party (SRS) and ICTY indictee Vojislav Seselj, which is an entirely unusual move for the Russian diplomatic practice and may be marked as Moscow’s slap to Belgrade, reads Wednesday’s issue of Blic.

Rogozin and Seselj spoke in SRS’s seat about political circumstances and agreed that “Serbia’s future is turned towards the east”. “The meeting was initiated by Rogozin. At his request, we met outside the government protocol, which is a great honor to us, as it shows that we are appreciated as true Serbian patriots”, said Seselj. SRS leader added that they spoke in a friendly, sincere and confidential atmosphere and that he was unable to give out any details. Belgrade did not fail to offer a reaction to the unusual act. “As the President of Serbia, I have never spoken with the opposition in Russia”, said the apparently disappointed Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic. Rogozin only shared that he had friendly and family links with Seselj, and did not reveal any details.

Deputy PM tells Rogozin to “take care of his own state” (Tanjug)

Zorans Mihajlovic has told Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin he should “take care of his own state.” Mihajlovic, who is one of Deputy Prime Ministers in the Serbian government and also holds the construction, infrastructure, and transport portfolio, in this way reacted to Rogozin’s warning that Serbia might someday face the same situation as Germany, where migrants sexually assaulted women during New Year’s celebrations. “Can the scenario that Rogozin is reminding of or predicting happen in Serbia? I think he should to take care of his own state, and we’ll take care of ours,” said she. Asked to comment on Rogozin’s meeting in Belgrade with the leader of SRS party Vojislav Seselj, Mihajlovic said that “everybody is free to go to visit whomever and wherever in Serbia.” “As for Seselj’s policy, I think that nobody in Serbia needs to be reminded of what it is, that is, that it is a policy of conflict, regression and opposition to the EU, and a policy against an organized system, which is contrary to the policy pursued by the government and the policy the SNS stands for, ” Mihajlovic said. She said that the government “stands above all for Serbia” and that the path towards the European Union was “not for the sake of the EU itself, but for reaching European and world standards.” “It’s nice to get a building permit in 28 days as well as electronic building permits,” she has been quoted as saying. The Deputy Prime Minister added that Serbia considers “political and economic relations with Russia important” – and especially in her portfolio, something that is “primarily related to the realization of the Russian loan for the modernization of Serbian Railways and the implementation of the signed memorandum for the construction of a new dispatcher center for modern trains which Serbia will have.”

Dodik: B&H is where I live, RS and Serbia are my state (RTS)

Republika Srpska (RS) President Milorad Dodik has said that Bosnia and Herzegovina (B&H) is “a state union,” while state competencies on all levels are held by its entities. These entities are RS and the Croat-Muslim Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (FB&H). “B&H is a compulsion, it’s neither a desire nor a love. It’s about the essence here – B&H is a complex state union and all I’m asking is what’s written in the constitution,” Dodik told Serbia’s state broadcaster RTS. He added that B&H “cannot exists, looking at it historically,” and described it as “a strategic mistake from 1995.” “My state is RS and Serbia, while B&H is where I must live,” Dodik stressed. According to him, B&H’s State Investigation and Protection Agency (SIPA) has been set up to serve as “coordinator” and “cannot carry out searches in the territory of the RS unless there is agreement to do it.” Dodik pointed out that his entity stopped cooperating with SIPA, and the Prosecution and Court of B&H after a police station in Novi Grad was raided. “The road to hell is always paved with good intentions. There’s no constitutional basis. How can I abolish it when it’s been imposed by the high representative. A majority is needed to abolish it, and Muslims (Bosniaks) are the ones who won’t do it,” he has been quoted as saying by RTS. Asked why he was “not communicating” with Serb member of the Bosnian Presidency Mladen Ivanic, Dodik said he “did communicate with him – but it was needless.” “Ivanic is a conformist who’s doing what he’s doing, and presenting it the way he wants to. I said it was pointless to talk to a man who can do nothing for the RS,” Dodik stressed. The RS leader mentioned a draft British resolution on Srebrenica, which was vetoed by Russia at the UN Security Council, saying that B&H should have adopted a joint position on this issue. Asked “why he finds Bosnian, but not Bosniak language contentious,” Dodik said Bosnian language did not exists, adding, “this was written in Dayton at one point but does not have to be accepted.” “In the RS we respect the provisions of the Dayton (peace) agreement, but we should also have a say when it comes to the language that should be Bosnian. If we accept that Bosnian language identifies all of us there, then we have accepted that Serbian and Croatian do not exist,” he pointed out. According to Dodik, “foreigners are not needed in B&H, and not everything needs to function the way it is now.” “B&H is an impossible country. The concept on which B&H was created as a consequence of Yugoslavia is impossible,” Dodik stated. Speaking about a planned referendum in the RS on the B&H Court and Prosecution, he said he thought it would be “interesting” if it were held in the spring, “perhaps in late April.”

Vucic: Serbian national Srdjan Babic released (Tanjug)

Serbian national Srdjan Babic, who was arrested in Libya last year, has been released and is currently in Valletta, Malta, Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic said late Tuesday.

“I have just finished a phone conversation with Malta’s Prime Minister Joseph Muscat and he informed me that our national Srdjan Babic, who had worked for an Austrian company in Libya and was accused of certain things by sections of Libyan paramilitary formations, is free at last,” Vucic said. Vucic said that Babic is no longer in Tripoli, but in Maltese territory, in Valetta.

REGIONAL PRESS

Izetbegovic: Coalition with SBB will survive despite setbacks (Klix)

Bakir Izetbegovic, the President of the SDA, night before the meeting of heads of the party, told reporters that he had a meeting with Fahrudin Radoncic, the leader of SBB, and that they talked about the new situation in which two people from SBB got arrested, due to the suspicion of obstructing the police in the process of Naser Kelmendi on Kosovo. Izetbegovic told the press that the coalition of the SDA and the SBB will survive in order to resolve the accumulated problems in Bosnia and Herzegovina (B&H). “No one is guilty until proven, and we will see what the investigating authorities will find out. But as far as I know, Bakir Dautbasic is the candidate for the position of the Minister of Transport and Communications,” stated Izetbegovic. He added that despite some setbacks, Radoncic will remain in coalition with the SDA, and on the question of from whom these insinuations are coming from, Izetbegovic said: “I would not like to say names, but many of those who do not like the Muslim unity and many of those who were against that and said that the unification of strong B&H leaders is not good.” In an announcement for the Press by SBB, it was stated that the president of SBB has proposed Dautbasic as the only candidate of SBB for the position of the Minister of Transport and Communications in B&H to the President of the Council of Ministers of B&H Denis Zvizdic. “As a responsible politician, I can say to all of the citizens that I have confidence in the judiciary and that I will continue the coalition with SDA. It is a big party that received more votes than their president. SBB is a powerful party and we will continue our coalition independently of personal relationships between Bakir Izetbegovic and me,” said the leader of SBB.

Abu Hamza could be released on March 4 (Dnevni avaz)

Imad al-Husin, known as Abu Hamza, who spent years in the Immigration Center in East Sarajevo because he was declared a threat to national security, could be released on March 4, reports Dnevni Avaz. All his appeals to the Bosnia and Herzegovina (B&H) Court and the European Court of Human Rights were rejected, but he could be released soon thanks to the adoption of some European directives. Slobodan Ujic, director of the B&H Service for Foreigners Affairs, said that Abu Hamza will be in the Immigration Center until March 3. B&H Security Minister Dragan Mektic said recently that Abu Hamza could be released due to new Law on Foreign Citizens. He added that Hamza still presents a threat to B&H security. “We adopted a new law which is in accordance with the European standards. According to that law, when eight months of detention expire, we have to release him. He will still be a threat and will be put under special surveillance”, Mektic said. Abu Hamza, who is detained in Immigration Center, cannot be extradited to Syria because of the war in that country, according to human rights convention. Hamza arrived to B&H during the 1992-1995 war and was a member of “El-Mujahidin”. He is detained at the Immigration Center since 2008.

INTERNATIONAL PRESS

Russia wants to build helicopter service center in Serbia (Sputnik)

Russia would like to establish an international or, at least, regional service center in Serbia that would repair Russian and Soviet-made helicopters. Those would include military and civilian craft, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin said on Tuesday. “Our offer to build a service center for helicopters does not refer to military issues only. Various helicopters are needed, including civilian ones,” Rogozin told Sputnik. Russia is also addressed by NATO member states for approvals for their helicopter overhauls. That is why we would like to have a service center in Serbia which would not have a military purpose only, but rather a general, civilian, he said. Asked whether it would be possible to form a Russian base in Serbia, Rogozin said: This is not a question for us, but for Serbia. Rogozin also said on Tuesday that Russia was not looking at attempts at militarization of the Balkans with any optimism. Commenting on Croatia’s campaign to arm itself with ballistic missiles, Rogozin told a joint press conference with Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic in Belgrade that Russia endeavored to ensure that the 1990s events in the Balkans never happened again, but they were not indifferent about the security of their Serbian friends. Rogozin added that he would present the Russian leadership with a detailed report on everything that he had heard about it in Belgrade. When asked about which weapons might Russia supply Serbia with and whether it included the S-300 system, Rogozin said that Serbia had given a list of what it needed and as there were no restrictions against Serbia, it would be considered seriously.

Russia Gets Weapons Wish List from Serbian Army (Sputnik)

Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin said that by the end of February, Russia and Serbia will form a high level commission on military cooperation, which is expect to commence its work by spring.

Russia has received a list of the weapons required by the Serbian Army, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin said Tuesday. “We confirm the information by the Serbian Defense Ministry that the list of Serbian Army’s needs has been prepared, and it will be carefully examined and considered,” Rogozin told journalists following talks with Serbia’s First Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic. According to Rogozin, considering the economic capabilities of both countries, it should be possible to fulfill the list. Answering questions about the conditions for future agreements, Rogozin noted that “military cooperation issues do not call for chatter.”

According to the official, by the end of February, Russia and Serbia will form a high level commission on military cooperation, which is expect to commence its work by spring. Ivica Dacic, for his part, said that military cooperation with Russia would enable Belgrade to ensure its national security in a scenario where other countries become militarized. Earlier in the day, Rogozin said Russia was ready to supply any weapons that are approved for export to Serbia. On January 11-12, Rogozin took part in a meeting of the Serbia-Russia Intergovernmental Committee for Trade, Economic, Scientific and Technical Cooperation.