Foreign policy analyst Edward P. Joseph told Belgrade daily newspaper Nova that the US Treasury Department sanctions on the chief of Serbia’s top civilian security agency Aleksandar Vulin are a signal that Washington will not tolerate any mass manipulation by President Aleksandar Vucic.

Joseph, a Senior Fellow at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies, said that the decision to impose sanctions on Vulin is late and added that it sends the message that the indulgence shown to Vucic is ending and the days of accountability are starting. According to Joseph, Vulin (who heads the Security Information Agency – BIA) is a figure who has inflicted damage at so many levels for a long time and should be condemned. He recalled Vulin’s attacks on the US since at least 2014 and the fact that they got worse after Russia invaded Ukraine.

Joseph said this was an exceptional step. He said that he has criticized the see no evil stand of the US towards Vucic for years and that the sanctions are a message not just to Vucic but that it reflects the views at very high levels of the Biden administration including State Secretary Antony Blinken and others that they will no longer tolerate Vucic’s manipulation.

Joseph cited an article in Foreign Policy Magazine whose author asked Blinken whether the unrest in the Western Balkans and loss of US credibility are worth the embrace of autocrat Vucic with a focus on Vulin’s role. He said the article catalyzed the growing feeling of some people in the Biden administration that enough is enough with Vucic. According to him, the article said that Vulin is Vucic’s alter ego who says what Vucic thinks but won’t say in public to maintain the charade.

He said US-Serbia cooperation will continue but with accountability and expressed the hope that US Ambassador Christopher Hill will promote the new more realistic approach to cooperation.

Joseph denied the possibility that the US administration could accuse senior officials in other countries without any evidence saying that the Treasury Department does not decide to impose sanctions without an investigation.

He said that Vucic’s reaction to the sanctions gives him reason for optimism. If Vucic believed the accusations were false he should have said son but he made an absurd comparison with the discovery of cocaine in the White House, he said and added that this reveals his bad reasoning. Joseph said that a smart politician would distance himself from Vulin but that Vucic has done just the opposite and that the US Embassy can’t ignore that view. Joseph said US officials should continue pressuring Vucic to get rid of Vulin who has held the posts of Internal Affairs and Defense Minister before moving to the BIA.