Moscow Flight Turned Back to Belgrade With Vulin Aboard

An Air Serbia plane that took off for Moscow on the evening of Tuesday, November 3, was turned back to Belgrade after reaching southern Lithuania. Among the passengers were Socialist Movement leader Aleksandar Vulin, Srbijagas director Dusan Bajatovic and Serbian People’s Party leader Nenad Popovic. The same aircraft landed in Moscow on the morning of November 4, with a changed crew and a delay of about seven hours.

Scheduled flight JU134 on the Belgrade-Moscow route, an Airbus A320, left Nikola Tesla Airport at 6:48 p.m., against a scheduled departure of 6:30 p.m. The reason for the return has not been fully explained officially, and sources disagree about it.

What did Air Serbia say about flight JU134?

In a statement published at 10:40 p.m., the company said the aircraft returned to Belgrade after it received information from the competent airport services that called for additional security checks concerning one passenger. It did not name the passenger. According to the statement, screening of passengers and baggage is the responsibility of the airport security system and the relevant services, and the decision to return was taken in line with the instructions received and the regulations in force.

Air Serbia also said in the same statement:

The Air Serbia crew acted fully in accordance with established procedures and the highest security standards.

The statement does not say which passenger was involved or what exactly required the additional check.

What do the media claim, and what is confirmed?

The portal Nova.rs was the first to link the return to Aleksandar Vulin, citing unofficial information. In that version, Vulin did not pass the security check, boarded the plane anyway, and someone allegedly helped him do so. Nova.rs does not say who.

The same portal reports that the order to turn the plane back came from Milan Kuc, director of corporate security at the Belgrade airport, after he reviewed surveillance camera footage. Kuc is a former member of the military police unit “Kobra” and has worked at the airport since 2012. He had not commented by the time of publication.

An unofficial source of the weekly “Vreme” claims that neither Vulin nor his luggage passed the check and that a prosecutor was waiting for him at Belgrade airport after landing. Neither the prosecutor nor the prosecutor’s office has been named, and the claim has not been officially confirmed.

N1 reports a different reason. The portal learned unofficially that the aircraft spent several hours in a procedure that follows a “bomb warning” scenario, meaning a bomb threat. Nova.rs and “Vreme” cite Vulin failing the check as the cause. Neither version has been confirmed by an official source.

Earlier in the day, media reported, Democratic Party president Srdjan Milivojevic asked on the platform X who was “fleeing to Moscow” at 6:30 p.m., and the Montenegrin portal ETV, citing its sources, published that Vulin and Popovic had booked tickets for that flight.

What happened after the landing in Belgrade?

About 150 passengers were on board, mostly Russian citizens. According to Bajatovic, police took charge of them on landing and led them to a separate checkpoint, where all passengers and all luggage were inspected. The passengers were transported in three buses.

Bajatovic described the procedure to N1:

We went to a completely separate checkpoint and a detailed inspection was carried out of everyone who was a passenger on the plane and of their luggage.

He added that he was told only after landing that everyone had to go through a new procedure, and that it was described as routine, with no specific reasons given. He cannot confirm claims that Vulin failed the security check, and says he sees nothing “bad or suspicious” happening at the airport.

What did Vulin and Bajatovic say about the reason for the trip?

After returning, Vulin joined TV Informer live. In his words, this was an attempt at a political settling of scores, and he called the claim that he was turned back over security checks false. He said:

It is all a lie, abuse, and an attempt to prove to these new authorities how ready they are here at the airport, how much they stand guard over their ideology.

He also said he traveled to Moscow on official business: “I am completely calm, I know I am in the right. And you know, I did not go to Moscow as a tourist, I went on official business.” According to him, the aim is to extend the gas arrangement, “not for me and you, but for all citizens of Serbia”.

Vulin described how he learned the plane was in Belgrade:

We simply woke up, to be honest, I fell asleep. I slept on the plane, I wake up, they say: You are in Belgrade. How in Belgrade? When we went outside, I see police gathered, special forces. I say: “Colleagues, did you come for me?” They laugh. They say: “No, Minister.”

Bajatovic, by contrast, says he set out for Russia over gas supply and payment problems after the Alta Banka case. About his fellow passengers he said: “As for why Mr. Popovic and Mr. Vulin went, I truly do not know.” He also admitted he did not speak with them during the flight: “To be honest with you, we said hello, but I slept the whole time.”

He also explained why he travels in person:

I go to Moscow very often, and even more often to Saint Petersburg. You all know what I do, I am the director of Srbijagas, we were occupied with elections for a long time, and now, because winter is coming, we will need additional quantities, and we have to agree on some things around flexibility and payment, because even this business with Alta Banka cut off some channels.

So two passengers from the same plane gave two different pictures: Vulin speaks of an official trip about the gas arrangement, while Bajatovic, who works in gas, says he does not know why Vulin and Popovic traveled.

What remains unanswered?

No state body had commented by morning on who requested the additional check and on whose order. It is not confirmed whether a prosecutor waited at the airport, who allegedly helped Vulin board, or whether the return was caused by a passenger security check or by a bomb-warning procedure. Nova.rs tried to reach Vulin by phone, but he was first unavailable and then did not answer.

The aircraft landed in Moscow early on the morning of November 4. Petar Vojinovic, editor of the portal Tango Six, wrote that the flight landed “routinely”, with a changed crew because of working-hours regulations, but with “the same, it turned out, more than interesting passengers” after a seven-hour delay.