Air Serbia flight JU134 from Belgrade to Moscow on November 3 was already deep in Lithuanian airspace when the crew received instructions to return to the Serbian capital. Among the passengers were three senior figures from the regime of former President Aleksandar Vucic: Aleksandar Vulin, former defense and interior minister and former head of Serbia's Security Intelligence Agency (BIA), Dusan Bajatovic, long-serving director of state-owned gas company Srbijagas, and Nenad Popovic, a minister without portfolio. All three are well known in Serbia for their close ties to Moscow and for controversies, including allegations of corruption and abuse of public office.
According to unofficial reports published by several media outlets, the plane was ordered back because of a security breach: Vulin had allegedly boarded without undergoing the mandatory security screening. Since 2023, Vulin has been under US sanctions over what Washington described as "engaging in corrupt and destabilizing activities that undermine the rule of law in the Western Balkans." Vulin told the media that he was travelling to Moscow to discuss extending a gas agreement with Russia. Bajatovic, however, said he did not know why Vulin and Popovic were travelling to Moscow and denied that the two would attend the scheduled meetings on gas supplies.
The incident might have remained nothing more than an unusual news item had it not occurred at a time when Serbia is undergoing a major political transformation. Just nine days earlier, on October 25, the student-backed list won a landslide victory over the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) in the parliamentary election, ending 14 years of political dominance by Aleksandar Vucic and the SNS, who maintained close relations with Moscow. Although the new majority has yet to take control of any levers of power, the days after the election brought a series of developments that would have seemed unimaginable just a few weeks ago.
Arrests, new criminal proceedings and the reopening of previously unresolved cases began to unfold at remarkable speed. Some of these cases strike at the very foundations of the system built during the SNS years in power. "This paints a sad picture of the Serbian prosecution service," prosecutor Bojana Savovic told DW.
Savovic sees the sudden action on the part of prosecutors as an attempt to ingratiate themselves with the new authorities. "With these actions, they are showing what they could have done but were unwilling to do until just ten days ago," she told DW. "I hope this speed of action will not come at the expense of the quality of indictments and that these are not personal vendettas within the old regime." Prosecutors have also launched a series of investigations into suspected electoral manipulation, corruption and abuse of public office.
Four people were arrested on suspicion of vote-buying in Novi Sad. Six others were detained in Mali Zvornik on suspicion of helping citizens from Bosnia and Herzegovina register their residence in Serbia so they could vote. One of the most high-profile cases is the arrest of Davor Macura, the owner of Alta Bank, who is suspected of illegally accessing the bank's vault and removing the equivalent of about €383 million ($430 million).
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