Six people have been detained in Serbia on charges of preparing a coup d’état. This is reported by the press service of the country’s Interior Ministry.
According to the investigation, the detainees were planning attacks on officials and police officers, seizure of state buildings, radio, television and media editorial offices.
The police did not name the detainees. One of those arrested is former chairman of the Serbian military trade union (VSS) Novica Antic, his lawyer Ivan Ninic told the local service of Radio Liberty.
Serbian media prepared a joint investigation that said the detainees planned to provoke a crowd of protesting students who were to be the main force behind the coup. The plotters also discussed the need for parity between protesters of different views.
In 2023, an unnamed Western intelligence agency accused Novica Antic of working for the FSB, Politico wrote.
According to the intelligence services’ version, Antic is a Russian agent of influence. He met with European officials and deputies, in particular German MP Viola von Kramon-Taubadel, Italian MP Olesandra Moretti and Slovak MP Vladimir Bilchik. They were all elected from different parties – Greens, Socialists and Conservatives.
Antic also met with representatives of the EUROMIL and EPSU trade unions, which represent EU servicemen and officials. Intelligence found it unlikely that these people knew about Antic’s work for the FSB.
According to the intelligence documents, Antich was recruited by Vyacheslav Kalinin, editor-in-chief of Veteranskie Vesti. The information page says that the website’s Editorial Board actively cooperates with Russian security organisations – the Ministry of Defence, the police, the National Guard, and Kalinin himself received a certificate of honour from the Russian President.
“Veteran News” wrote quite a lot about Antic and even published an open appeal in support of the Serbian veteran when he was detained in 2024.
In May, Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service accused Serbian companies of supplying hundreds of thousands of Grad MLRS shells, as well as rockets and mortar shells to Kiev through intermediaries, calling it a “stab in the back.”
Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic ordered an investigation into the allegations and later announced a complete halt of military supplies abroad. At the same time, the Serbian leader attended the Ukraine-Southeast Europe summit held in Odessa.
After that, the Russian SVR accused Serbia of supplying Ukraine with weapons for the second time.
In 2016, Russian authorities were preparing an armed coup in Montenegro over NATO membership, but some of the plotters were detained in Serbia. At the time, Vucic said they were linked to a foreign state, and a little later several Russians were expelled from the country.