The outspokenly pro-Russian director of Serbia's state security agency, Aleksandar Vulin, announced his "irrevocable" resignation from atop the Security Intelligence Agency (BIA) on November 3, saying he doesn't want Western sanctions targeting him personally to adversely affect his country.
A former interior minister and longtime ally of President Aleksandar Vucic, Vulin has been under U.S. sanctions since July for alleged corruption, involvement in drug trafficking, and ties to Russia.
"The USA and the EU are after my head as a precondition for not imposing sanctions on Serbia," Vulin said.
"I am not the cause of blackmail and pressure on Serbia and the Serbian world, but I will not allow myself to be the cause of blackmail and pressure on Serbia and the Serbian world. That is why I submit my irrevocable resignation from the post of BIA director."
The term "Serbian world" is an echo of a Russian equivalent term historically invoked to justify intervention in neighboring countries, and Vulin's frequent invocation of the catchphrase has occasionally sent shudders through the postwar Balkans.
Vulin's move comes days after Vucic dissolved Serbia's parliament and officially set national elections for December 17, in tandem with local elections.
The Serbian opposition has demanded changes, including clamping down on violence following two shock mass shootings in May that triggered street protests, and the main pro-European parties have agreed to run together under the banner Serbia Against Violence.
In his resignation message, Vulin complained that Vucic and Serbia were being strong-armed over recognition of former province Kosovo, which declared independence in 2008, as well as over perceived interference in Bosnia's Serbian entity and Belgrade's refusal to impose EU sanctions on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine.
He predicted that "the next demand will be expulsion of Chinese investments," greater dependance on Western technologies and trade, and a "continuation of the political and territorial disintegration of Serbia and the acceptance of Western values in which there is no place for the traditional family and nation, and ultimately neither for social justice."
The European Union and United States have heaped pressure on Belgrade and Pristina to normalize relations to reduce the potential for conflict and allow both Serbia and Kosovo to more fully participate in international bodies.
Vulin is the highest-ranking Serbian official to be placed on a U.S. sanctions list since the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) came to power in 2012.
Vulin is a former member of the SNS who founded the right-wing, pro-Russian Movement of Socialists party in 2008 but left its leadership when he became head of the BIA.