How Putin’s Sleepers Were Formed

The main goal of forming the Balkan Cossack Army was to create an army of Putin’s “sleepers”, which would be activated and would be a kind of political and logistical support to the Kremlin when the President of Russia “takes over things in the Western Balkans.”

This was announced to Pobjeda by several sources from that pro-Russian and pro-Serbian organization, who attended the preparatory meetings during 2015, when the formation and recruitment of people for that organization began.

The series of preparatory meetings at which people were recruited for the Cossack army in the creation continued during 2015 and the following year until its official formation in Kotor on September 12, 2016.

Russian shadow over the Balkans

The organization of the Balkan Cossack Army in Montenegro was only a part of the action of forming a network of Russian influence in the Balkans.

As early as 2011, the first Cossack associations began to “emerge” in Serbia. According to a survey by the Balkan Research Network (BIRN) of Bosnia and Herzegovina, in 2013 one of the Cossack atamans in Serbia, Vojislav Vidakovic, announced the expansion of the “Cossack network” to Bosnia and Herzegovina, precisely to the Republika Srpska entity.

The following year, before the elections in BiH, the arrival of the Cossacks in Banja Luka was registered, when the campaign was at its peak. Some analysts assessed the arrival of the Cossacks as support for the candidacy of Milorad Dodik for the presidency of the Republika Srpska. According to the way he appeared in the media, Nikolai Dyakonov was the head of that Cossack troupe, participant in the Ukrainian conflict in the ranks of pro-Russian forces, who a few years later will become the supreme ataman of the Alliance of Cossacks-Soldiers of Russia and Abroad (SKVRiZ), writes award-winning BIRN journalist Mladen Obrenovic.

That is when the name of Viktor Zaplatin, a veteran of the wars in Transnistria and Abkhazia, appeared in public. As an envoy of the Association of Volunteers of Donbas, but also a participant in the war in BiH, Zaplatin has been a guest in Visegrad in recent years, visiting Belgrade and Sarajevo.

Zaplatin’s name will also become known to the Montenegrin public when he was unanimously elected supreme ataman of the “Balkan Cossack Army” at a rally in Kotor in 2016.

Preparations in Montenegro

A year earlier, according to Pobjeda’s research and testimonies of participants, preparations for the formation of the Cossack organization were very intensive: selected members of various Serbian right-wing and pro-Christian organizations, members of far-right parties were informed.

The goal was to form an organization that would promote the ideas of Pan-Slavism, Orthodoxy and which would be a kind of logistics for the Kremlin’s policy in Montenegro.

According to Pobjeda research, preparatory meetings to discuss the goals of forming the Cossack Army were organized, among others, by Slobodan Pejovic, the future Cossack ataman in Montenegro with the logistics of Serbian Church priests, but also activists and Serbian rightists from a wide range of pro-Serbian political parties and organizations.

The beginning of the formation of that paramilitary organization was extremely conspiratorial, and the story that was emphasized at the meetings was the formation of literally an army of Russian nationalists, who would wait for a suitable political moment to take effect.

“People with war experience who were in the military and police service with prominent Russophile and Serbian nationalism were wanted as members. And that was a priority. And it was requested that meetings be organized and that the details not be presented outside or in public “, says the interlocutor of Pobjeda, noting that it was strictly ordered that members of the Cossack organization never appear armed at rallies.

As a kind of reward for loyalty to Moscow’s policy, it was promised that, after a year, all members of the Balkan Cossack Army would receive citizenship and passports of the Russian Federation, said several Pobjeda interlocutors, confirming earlier findings of the Balkan Research Network from BiH (BIRN) on the possibility of obtaining citizenship.

The story of the passport of the Russian Federation as a bait gathered many extreme Serbian right-wingers, Russophiles, believers of the Church of Serbia at secret preparatory meetings and considering the military-police pedigree of those people, it was clear that some kind of lobbyist, but also paramilitary formation was being formed, with a command center outside Montenegro.

At the same time, the basic idea was that no Russophile or pro-Serbian party has dominance within the organization, in order to avoid a situation where individual party interests prevail over the idea of ​​”Pan-Slavic Orthodox Brotherhood”.

“We have been told to be ‘sleepers’ until Russian President Vladimir Putin is ready to take over the situation in the Balkans. So, we were supposed to be the logistics that Putin would rely on. That was quite logical for us then, and we all believed in that story. This is happening in 2015. There were people who were ready to die and celebrate that they died for Putin and Russia. I must emphasize, they were all Serbs and citizens of Montenegro “, say the interlocutors of Pobjeda.

Pobjeda sources indicate that at that time, the parallel plan was appropriate media support, because the formation of the Cossack army was to be presented as “the defense of Orthodoxy from NATO and support for Putin and Mother Russia.”

An adequate media background was planned, which would be followed by pro-Russian portals, but also a magazine called “Kozak”.

Work action

According to the claims of the Pobjeda source, preparations for the formation of the army were underway soon after that, and it was completed that the uniforms were sewn and Slobodan Pejovic paid for them.

“I could guarantee with my life that DPS paid for them. I have no proof of that, but I am convinced, because it suited them to have influence in the organization “, said one of the interlocutors of Pobjeda.

The first opportunity to promote the Cossacks in Montenegro was in 2016, when a memorial service was to be held for the fallen Russian Cossacks who came to Gusinje after fleeing Russia after the October Revolution of 1917.

The work action, as the code name was, was organized, uniforms were sewn and with one important detail: all the Cossacks who went to the memorial service were Montenegrin citizens, except for General Zaplatin, who was a citizen of the Russian Federation.

It is planned to visit the villages around Berane, in order to continue towards the destination, towards the border of Montenegro and Albania.

“When we arrived in Berane, the plan changed and Slobo Pejovic announced his arrival at the then mayor of Berane, Dado Scekic. That was not in the plan and then we begin to suspect that it is a matter of manipulation. Kikovic, the president of the Assembly of the New Serbian Democracy, was also present at the meeting. Kikovic then said publicly that everything was organized through the municipal boards of the New Serbian Democracy from the north. At that moment, we realized that everything was a fraud and that the people who honestly entered the story were deceived and that the New Serbian Democracy would try to gain control.

At that time, we were in the village of Leksa Sajcic. The Vasojevics approach us, delighted to see the Cossacks. You know, at the time, these people were offering Putin land to build Russian bases. At that moment, I felt like a bear being brought to village fairs. I later received confirmations from my friends for my own suspicions of fraud. They explained that this is not the real Balkan Cossack army, but that there is a real one in Russia, led by Russian Duma deputy Vodolatsky. The Vasojevics who welcomed us said “hello brothers”, believing that we are all Russians “, says the interlocutor of Pobjeda.

“They think we are Russians! But we were all from Niksic, and only General Zaplatin, a Russian. Imagine that manipulation and deception. I come back and get a message from a friend that in fact this Cossack army is fake and that only the one led by Vodolacki is real “. These claims were previously made by parts of the Cossack organization from BiH and Serbia, which were also presented by BIRN in its research.

False Cossacks

Then, at the meetings, according to Pobjeda, some members accused Pejovic of working for who knows who, attributing to him that he even works for “Montenegrin Udba” and officially got out.

Some of them join another Cossack army, which they say is original and supported by the Russian Duma.

For the formation of the Balkan Cossack Army, which was founded later that year, they claim that it is a classic paramilitary organization, which essentially has no idea but can only serve for some works that have nothing to do with Pan-Slavism, Russophilia or Serbianness.

“The Cossack Army, which was formed in Kotor in 2016, is a classic paramilitary organization. The so-called Ataman of the Cossacks, Montenegrin Slobodan Pejovic falsely presents himself. And the war veteran, General Viktor Zaplatin, the supreme ataman, was misused by political organizations that present themselves as protectors of the Serbian people “, say the interlocutors of Pobjeda.

According to them, the “army” formed in Kotor could only serve for some suspicious actions that have nothing to do with the idea of ​​establishing a Cossack army.

One of Pobjeda’s interlocutors therefore states that the only organization that has a mandate and is accredited by the Alliance of Cossacks – Warriors of Russia and Abroad is the one led by the Duma deputy, Cossack General Viktor Vodolacki. All the others, as he states, damage the image of the Cossacks and cause trouble in the public./ Pobjeda /