29.12.2019.
Minister Vulin: “Operation Krušik”
Answering a question of a reporter from N1 Television station, the minister of defence said that “the goal of the Operation Krušik was to weaken Serbian defence industry sot that it could be and would be destroyed, which is rather useful for all those who have initiated the operation”.
- And, of course, to attack the state leadership of our country, in this particular case Nebojša Stefanović, and the main target is, naturally, Aleksandar Vučić. That is why I refer to it as an operation - the minister of defence explained.
Addressing the reporter, he wondered if that reporter could go, for example, to the television station Pink and tell them how much his house paid this or that associate, which topics they would develop, and when they would cover some of the topics, and then the minister established that the reporter’s editor would very soon tell him goodbye and never to walk through the door of N1 again”.
- It is interesting that when you do the same in a military factory, you run to foreigners and give them classified information about the business of that factory, you are called a hero. You would be fired, and a hero should receive a medal. That is not normal and it is not possible, and I cannot exert pressure on legislation, because the legislation knows the best, but I as a common citizen believe that if that happened in Belarus or in Russia, or in America, that man would be considered to be a spy - Minister Vulin pointed out and wondered how such empathy did not exist in case of Snowden for example, who is treated by the United States as a spy.
- Our greatest competition in defence industry production is in Bulgaria, and last year Bulgarian arms export decreased by 37 per cent, while ours still grew. And yet, miraculously the very operation Krušik was launched from Bulgaria - the minister of defence stated, and added that it was probably a coincidence and “definitely had nothing to do with economy”.
He confirmed that it truly is an “attack against Serbian defence industry” by presenting a data that “several contracts have already been terminated with no clear explanation”.
- Arms dealers do not like being written or talked about. That is the way they are. Not just ours, but all of them around the world. A comment from one of them was: “If I come to a company where my classified information will be disclosed to the entire world, and where my lorries will be photographed and where the final destinations of the shipments will be announced, is it not better for me to go to Bulgaria where nothing of the sort will happen?”
When the N1 reporter observed that Obradović had given the information to media who could make it public or not, and not to a foreigner, the minister of defence publicly asked: “Why did not Obradović address our courts and public prosecutor?”
- How many seconds will you keep your job if you come to me after this conference and tell me in private what your next story is going to be, who it is going to be about, when you are going to take it and what the topic is going to be - an I make it public? Or if you tell me how high your salary is, what the price of one second on your television programme is, and also what the discounts are. You will tell me the amount of a discount given to a precise client, as well as what it is that you give for those discounts, and how much your second will be charged next year. You will tell that to me, and if I want to disclose it, I will - the minister of defence said.
Underlining that he gladly answered questions, and that he considers them all to be legitimate, he appealed for not forgetting the first thing that the journalists are taught - that the facts are obliging, and comments free.
- That is one thing that few people talk about, which I, as a journalist, would always respect, which I always did. And that is so called presumption of innocence. It is very interesting that in the case of operation Krušik, it is only Obradović who is innocent, while everyone else are guilty, though there is no verdict for anyone. It would be very interesting if we would respect the presumption of innocence for all. And what if Nebojša Stefanović is innocent? Did it even occur to you that Minister Stefanović has nothing to do with it? According to you, only Obradović is innocent, but it seems that it is not the case - Minister of Defence Aleksandar Vulin concluded and confirmed that as the editor of “Pečat”, which was the last newspaper that he edited, he had always insisted that his journalists respected the presumption of innocence for all.
