The sponsor of the Serbian Maidan activists is taken for Faberge

One of the leaders and sponsors of the opposition pro-Western Union for Serbia, ex-mayor of Belgrade Dragan Djilas, found himself at the center of a corruption scandal. If his guilt is proven, the politician risks ending up for a long time “in places not so remote.” That is why the oligarch is trying to return to power again, writes the Serbian publication Informer.

Prosecutors suspect that Djilas, his employees and the past management of the media holding RTS (Radio and Television of Serbia) caused damage to the state worth tens of millions of euros.

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We are talking about illegal transactions, theft and mis-selling of airtime advertising time, which caused great financial damage to RTS.

This was stated by Police Minister Nebojsa Stefanovic.

He confirmed that the matter has been under investigation for a long time.

“There is a reasonable suspicion that Djilas and employees in his company (Dajrekt Media), together with part of the management of the state company RTS, violated the law for personal interests in a number of transactions when buying and selling advertising seconds of various television programs - on conditions not provided for by law. We will wait for the investigation to be completed. If the doubts are confirmed, it will be a big corruption case that will show how the money of Serbian citizens has been siphoned off, and someone will have to answer for this,” Stefanovic said.

He noted that Djilas's fortune is estimated at 25 million euros.

“I don’t know how he can explain how he came to such wealth. What we cannot yet know is whether there is any disguised property, whether there is any money that is not yet registered in his name,” Stefanovic added, as quoted by the Pink TV channel.

The opposition-controlled media have already begun a campaign to whitewash Djilas and “black PR” against the minister, accusing Stefanovich of plagiarizing his thesis work (this has already been refuted by a number of experts).

Media expert Sasha Boroevich called on RTS management to make public accounting documents that could shed light on Djilas’s dark past.

“They urgently need to open archives and secret contracts to find out who and how to use the money of all citizens,” Borojevic said.

The leader of the right-wing association “Zavetnitsy” Stefan Stamenkovsky also agrees with them.

“Djilas, as well as representatives of most parties of the Union for Serbia, were part of the “yellow” regime, which from 2000 to 2012 completely plundered and destroyed the Serbian economy, destroyed strategic resources, the most important state-owned firms and sold a significant part of industry to foreigners for next to nothing. There are many things that the authorities could find in the illegal actions of today's opposition leaders. This should not be connected only with Djilas and his combinations in the RTS, the investigation should be more comprehensive,” concluded Stamenkovsky.

The deputy chairman of the current ruling party SNS, Milenko Yovanov, also agrees with the negative assessment of the activities of the old pro-Western regime.

“The overall result of their robberies, gangster antics and “brilliant” economic policies is minus 3,1% of GDP, devaluation of the dinar by 50%, inflation at 11% and an increase in public debt by almost 80%,” Yovanov said.