The recent reshuffle in Serbia’s Security-Information Agency (BIA) reveals the Vučić regime’s ongoing strategy of consolidating power while managing both internal and external political optics. Marko Parezanović, long considered a trusted operative with deep ties to Russian intelligence, was quietly removed from his influential post as head of BIA’s operations and reassigned to a marginal advisory role. Official narratives framed the move as a routine personnel change, but insiders describe it as a carefully orchestrated, politically calculated maneuver.
Parezanović’s perceived Russian connections have made him a liability at a time when the regime is navigating tensions with Kremlin-linked entities in Serbia’s energy sector, particularly regarding Russian stakes in NIS. Sources indicate that while Parezanović has been pragmatic and loyal, his reassignment shields him from future demands for potentially illicit loyalty tests, while simultaneously signaling to other BIA officials that proximity to power carries limits and risks.
Vučić’s public accusations against Parezanović’s administration — hinting at insufficient engagement or even tacit support for opposition forces — appear less a critique of competence than a display of authoritarian messaging: loyalty is demanded, dissent will be punished, and no one, not even seasoned operatives, is untouchable. The reshuffle underscores a pattern in which the regime blends opportunistic pragmatism with coercive control, ensuring that key institutions like the BIA remain tightly subordinated to political imperatives rather than independent professional judgment.
This episode exposes the dual reality of Serbia’s security apparatus under Vučić: operational expertise exists, but it is constantly subordinated to political survival, leaving the country’s intelligence services more as instruments of regime preservation than as guardians of national security.
