Serbia and Croatia argue over existence of a “Croatian spy” detained in Serbia

Miloš Vučević and Andrej Plenković, the prime ministers of Serbia and Croatia, argued over the report alleging the detention of a Zagreb spy on Serbian territory. This was reported by HRT.

The Croatian prime minister, Andrej Plenković, compared the alleged spy in Serbia to a yeti, a mythical creature from the Himalayas whose existence is not convincing, on the fringes of a strategic forum in the Slovenian city of Bled the day before.

Plenkovic also compared the situation to the movie “Balkan Spy,” in which the protagonist paranoidly believes that his lodger is an intelligence officer.

In response, the Serbian prime minister, Miloš Vučević, stated that this person existed and that he had shared information about him with his Croatian counterpart.

“I told Mr. Plenkovic that I think the Croatian security services know very well who this person is,” Vucevic said, adding that the arrested person is of Serbian origin, but it is not known whether he has Croatian citizenship.

Last week, Serbian intelligence services announced the detention of a person who allegedly spied on Croatia but did not disclose any details about him, Novosti reported. At the time, Croatia said it had no confirmation of such an arrest.

This is not the first “spy scandal” between Belgrade and Zagreb.

In November 2023, Serbia expelled the first secretary of the Croatian Embassy, Hrvoje Schneider, accusing him of espionage and recruitment. In response, Zagreb expelled Serbian Embassy counselor Petar Novakovic.