The head of Serbia’s Intelligence and Security Agency (BIA), Aleksandar Vulin, resigned on Friday after the US imposed sanctions on him in July, Reuters and Agerpres reported.

Oleksandr Vulin (right)Photo: Valery Sharifulin / Sputnik / Profimedia Images

Washington accused the head of the Serbian intelligence service of helping Moscow in its “malicious” activities and of having ties to an arms dealer and a drug-trafficking group.

Vulin is also the president of the Socialist Movement, a member of the ruling coalition in Belgrade. In his resignation letter, he said he was stepping down to eliminate the risk of “threats and blackmail” by the West against Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic over sanctions against Russia, which Serbia has refused to join.

If Serbia accepts these sanctions, the next request will be to accept “Western values”, Aleksandar Vulin also notes in his resignation. “I will not allow myself to be the cause of blackmail and pressure on Serbia and Serbs. Therefore, I am submitting my irrevocable resignation,” he explained.

Oleksandr Vulin was previously Minister of Defense and Minister of Internal Affairs. He is the first high-ranking Serbian official to be sanctioned by the US since Vucic became president in 2017. The latter said in July that Serbia would investigate the charges brought by the United States against the Serbian intelligence chief.

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