Security Information Agency chief Aleksandar Vulin resigns

BELGRADE - Security Information Agency (BIA) Director Aleksandar Vulin announced on Friday he had tendered his irrevocable resignation from the post because the US and the EU wanted his "head as a precondition for not imposing sanctions on Serbia."

"I am not the cause of the blackmailing and the pressure on Serbia and the Serb World, but I will not allow myself to become the pretext for the blackmailing and pressure on Serbia and the Serb World," Vulin said in a statement.

He said Serbia and President Aleksandar Vucic were facing threats and blackmails that could be compared only to the Austro-Hungarian ultimatum of 1914.

"They want us to recognise Kosovo, to abandon Republika Srpska and to stop being a sovereign country and nation by imposing sanctions on the Russian Federation. If we were to agree to do that, the next step would be banishment of Chinese investments, unconditional technological and economic dependence on the West as well as a continuation of political and territorial disintegration of Serbia and acceptance of Western values, in which there is no place for a traditional family and a traditional nation and, ultimately, for social justice," Vulin said.

He said sanctions imposed on him personally were a proof of his "persevering fight for unity of Serbs," but noted that sanctions on Serbia under the pretext of his further stewardship of the Security Information Agency would be a proof of his "selfishness."

"The first indicator of the correctness of my decision will be hypocritical statements by US and EU officials, in which they will swear they never even wanted to impose punishment and sanctions on us. My resignation will not change the US and the EU policy on Serbia, but it will slow new demands and blackmailing," Vulin said.

"They have not been given sanctions on Russia, they have not been given a Serbian recognition of Kosovo, but they have been given a Serbian head. I refuse to become a part of the anti-Russian and anti-Serbian hysteria for the sake of any post, and to stop caring for Republika Srpska and its survival and stop believing in the inevitability of Serb unification and the creation of a Serb World, I refuse to give up on the policy of military neutrality and the brotherhood with Russia and China," he added.

"This is a small victory for the US and the EU, but also a great victory for me because I have proven that Serbia and the Serbs are worthy of any sacrifice. My sacrifice is small compared to the magnitude of the sanctities I am defending," Vulin said in the statement.