Relations between Serbia and Croatia a smokescreen: What's behind the scenes of the arrest of the alleged Croatian agent

The staging of the arrest of the alleged Croatian spy in Belgrade resembled the arrest of Slobodan Milošević, but also a series of spectacular actions by the Serbian police, reports the Patria News Agency.

And while information from the prosecution is only trickling in, there are several possible scenarios for the timing of the arrest, which, it is quite certain, is not accidental. It is quite certain that the announcement of the arrest of an agent of the Croatian military security service will also have a foreign policy aspect through the relations between Croatia and Serbia; the fact that the operation by BIA, the Serbian secret service, was announced at a time when the discussion about the selection of candidates for the new head of the civil secret service is underway, has practically passed "under the radar".

The most serious candidate is Bratislav Gašić, former Serbian Minister of Defense, whom Vučić dismissed at the end of last year under public pressure due to the statement "I really like these journalists who kneel so easily". A much more serious reason for Gašić's resignation was the crash of a military helicopter that crashed on March 13, 2013, near Belgrade's "Nikola Tesla" airport, in which seven people died.

The helicopter took off in dense fog for a critically ill baby, allegedly on Gašić's express order, and the flight was supposed to be in function of Vučić's election campaign. In the end, no one was held accountable. With the arrest of the alleged Croatian spy, the public's focus of interest is shifting away from Gašić. However, it is possible that the current head of the service, lawyer Aleksandar Đorđević, who was not Vučić's choice, wants to preserve his position with this action.

As for the specific allegations that the Croatian agent was collecting data on former JNA officers whom Croatia has accused or plans to accuse of war crimes, and that he was collecting data on the organizational structure and relations within the Serbian Army, several theses can also be put forward.

It is to be expected that Croatian services - if indictments have been filed - have already collected some data, so it is unclear what an agent from Belgrade could have provided them with. The organizational structure of the Serbian Army can also be learned from public sources, and what is always interesting to all services are the personnel and their personal profiles and relationships.

One of the questions is also how it is that the associate did not signal to his parent service that he could be compromised. The rule then is that the service hides or withdraws him, unless it wants to "hand him over" to the other side in some way.

However, this can always be a risky move if the associate "starts talking" and the other side can also support that cooperation with some evidence. But these are speculations for now, as the details about the arrested person and his profile are still unknown. If he was compromised, then it would be his oversight and that of the service that hired him, specifically the Croatian one.

But these are just speculations, as is the extent to which he worked for the Croatian military security service, if he indeed did. Given that it is stated that he also has Croatian citizenship, it will be interesting to see if he will seek contact with the Croatian Embassy in the coming days.

Jutarnji.hr