Georgiev: Those whom Belivuk mentions in court have already “covered everything before”

It is good that Belivuk’s group is in court for what they did, but those they mention in their testimonies have “covered it all before”, says Slobodan Georgiev, director of the news programme of Nova S television. “In the sense that they said they would say this in court, that they are waging some political war, and now if you even pass on what they said in court, you will be labelled a collaborator of the mafia,” Georgiev said. He also says Serbia is in big trouble. “First inflation, which is huge. Whoever goes to the store, he understands what is happening, but he does not understand why it is happening. We have no one to ask. But we can talk about sanctions against Russia,” he adds.

We served the authorities and we demolished Savamala, said Veljko Belivuk in his defence. The new government will have 25 ministries. Four new departments have been created. Who has no place in the enlarged government? Why is the President comparing our country to Casablanca? And he says that we will follow our own policy, which has been formulated by the National Security Council.

“What is the National Security Council? A shadow government. When there is no government, then policy is based on the decisions of a body that is supposed to deal with security issues. Now everything is a national security issue, from sugar prices to oil and gas, we see people going around saying how we are at war … I think they are behaving accordingly,” Georgiev said on N1’s Novi dan.

He also states that “we have a state of emergency, which has not yet been officially declared”. “So Vucic is very upset on days when he doesn’t open factories,” he adds.

“And it is not clear what this policy is. Vucic is talking about some Serbian policy … and it’s all become this radical story – ‘what I am not is not good for Serbia’. Ever since they started talking about forming a new government, it’s a radical calling out of everybody else, it’s a hijacking of Serbia and national interests and putting them on their level – ‘we are the only patriots, we know what’s good for Serbia’.”. So if you know what is good for Serbia, do it”, Georgiev said.

But…

“Now he is saying that it is good that we do nothing, that it is good that we stick to this course, which is neither there nor there. We have gone from never having stood better in the world to being one Casablanca, a land where all sorts of spies, all sorts of shady characters roll in and somehow they all get into his cabinet, like the Russian they kept quiet about”, the N1 guest said.

This Russian is Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Aleksandar Grushko, who, according to the Russian Foreign Ministry, met Vucic during his visit to Belgrade on 13-14 October. We did not get the news of the visit from Serbian sources, but from the Russian ministry.

“Well, yes, they saw that the Serbian side was doing a dead hand and obviously this man had to come here and he met both Dacic and Vucic. They can’t refuse Minister Lavrov and maybe they could have, but obviously there was interest. In the days when a government has to be formed, someone from Moscow has to appear, maybe to whisper something to them”, Georgiev assesses.

Today’s session of the Assembly of Serbia includes amendments to the law on ministries. There will now be 25 of them.

Vucic has expanded this government to accommodate as many people as possible, Georgiev says.

“There is so much Serbian politics in every field, so now they have focused it, they have separated the ministry of culture from the ministry of information, so they have separated the ministry of telecommunications from the ministry of trade… And if these people really mind their own business, I think it would be good. It is always good that different segments in society have separate leadership. But they don’t work properly, we can’t even remember who sat in that government,” the N1 guest pointed out.

Serbia has a problem

Commenting on the writings of the press, Georgiev says that “Serbia is in a problem, like the whole world.”

“It should have a good government, but it hasn’t had one for months. Did Vucic postpone its establishment because he wanted to, I don’t know, fill up those gas pipelines, those warehouses in Hungary and say – now I’m OK, I’ll have gas for the whole winter … We haven’t had a government for a very long time and we are told that Serbia is in crisis,” Georgiev said.

This will be another transitional government, he said. “Vucic himself said it will have a limited mandate”.

Georgiev also believes that the Serbian President has failed to turn the country towards the West.

“Now, if he does it with a new government, it doesn’t matter. We are recognised as a special case and I don’t think it will do much good. Serbia has two key problems – Kosovo and its attitude towards sanctions against Russia. The Americans are mainly concerned with Kosovo, but they do not insist much on sanctions against Russia, Europe is more keen for Serbia to show some solidarity,” Georgiev said.

As he says, it all boils down to “a big fuss over the TV”. “And actually it’s save yourself who can, let me rule a little longer and so on,” he adds.

Komersant predicts that Serbia will join the sanctions against Russia.

“Our lives will not change if Vucic imposes these sanctions tomorrow. But whether it will change for him too I am not sure about that either. The benefit diminishes over time. If he had done it when he was supposed to, that benefit would have been greater. There is no justification to talk about being a kind of partner with Russia. The country has much bigger problems. First, inflation, which is huge. Anyone who goes to the store understands what is happening, but is not clear why it is happening. We have no one to ask, but we can talk about sanctions against Russia. Those are some imposed topics,” said Georgiev.

In his view, Vucic cannot say that he will not join the EU.

“Because it is a strategic decision. Vulin said that, but he is irrelevant. Serbia has its own agreement with the EU and that is it, it is called the Stabilisation and Association Agreement. If Vucic wants to change this agreement with Europe, he should tell the citizens what the consequences of queuing for visas are, and see how it goes down with the people”, he said.

Apart from inflation, the case of the trial of Veljko Belivuk’s group remained on the back burner.

“It is good that this group is in court for the things they did, but there are many things they did before the ones they were accused of,” Georgiev said.

He adds that Belivuk “incriminated himself by talking about other things they did, especially the Savamala case”.

“But that’s it. He will say it in court, we will probably see some more details, but these people have covered it before, in the sense that they said they would say it in court, that they are waging some political war, and now if you even say what they said in court, they will label you as a collaborator of the mafia,” Georgiev concluded./N1