The MP of the Bundestag, Zaklin Nastic, has hired a Serbian-German nationalist as an associate. Another year after the Russian attack, he attended a conference of the Russian nationalist Alexander Dugin. Nastic does not see any problems in this, but after CORRECTIV’s request, it deleted the links with its associate.
The conference addressed a new World Order, global power shifts and the fight against Western values: in April 2023, more than 100 participants gathered at the invitation of Alexander Dugin at a “conference on the multipolar world”, to exchange their views. Dugin is a Russian nationalist who wants the destruction of Ukraine. For many years, he has built a global network of like-minded people, including the Kremlin.
The speech as the 76th speaker in the videoconference was taken by Andreja Lovic. It took a while for him to be seen and heard. Then, Lovic thanked for the opportunity to speak at this “important forum” and expressed his support for “multilateralism instead of Western colonialism”. Later, Dugin shared Lovic’s speech on his media portal and through social networks.
The appearance is important, because according to CORRECTIV’s research, Lovic is an associate of Bspora MP in the Bundestag, Zaklin Nastic. Through her participation in the Defense Commission, which has access to confidential security matters, Nastic and her office have access to content related to the fight against terrorism and the defense of Germany in the event of war. Moreover, according to CORRECTIV’s research, Lovic is a reserve officer in the Serbian Army.
The hiring of a Serbian nationalist and an ideologue close to Russia raises not only security issues. His boss, Zaklin Nastiflix, is a close confidant of Sahra Wagenknecht and is a board member of the new party Bündnis Sahra Wagenknecht. This is a party that has given very little information about its structures and its political positions are still not clear.
Lovic, a patriot of Serbia Andreja Lovic’s family comes from Serbia, but he grew up in the Frankfurt area and has tried early on to strengthen ties with his old homeland. Thus, he has been active for many years in the Central Council of Serbs in Hesse (ZSH). Currently, he is a member of the board and chairman of the Youth Committee. According to the website, the ZSH aims to represent the interests of the Serbian people “in cooperation with the institutions of the Republic of Serbia”. In public, Lovic appears openly as a Serbian nationalist and militarist. He has completed his Serbian military service voluntarily and has been a reserve officer since February 2021. In the Serbian press, he is described as a patriot.
In interviews, where he presents himself as a political analyst, Lovic represents nationalist and anti-Western attitudes. In February 2024, Lovic spoke in a Serbian newspaper about the Kosovo issue with a twist of victim and culprit. “Over the centuries, Serbia has fought against various occupiers and has always emerged victorious from these battles,” he told the Serbian newspaper Poslanik. He did not mention the serb genocide in Srebrenica. The media where he expresses himself, such as Informer or Happy TV, are close to Serbia’s right-wing government and accused of disinformation. He also comments on the parliamentary elections in Brandenburg and the BSNB. Even on a YouTube channel of the medium “Balkan Info”, featuring well-known nationalists, he appears as an alleged expert. Through this channel, T-shirts with ssibles are distributed, which in the neo-Nazi scene are used as a substitute for the swastika. Lovic, too, is in charge of “journalistic-editorial offers” in the Office of Nastic. This is written on her website. If TV appearances have been discussed with him, Nastic does not answer questions about it.
Nastic, Serbia, and Kosovo here align with the positions of Nastic. On the 15th anniversary of Kosovo’s independence in 2023, the Bundestag MP said Serbia and its people “should no longer become a game in the hands of Western states and their interests”. As a human rights spokesperson for the left, Nastic has traveled to Serbia several times and criticized the situation of the Serb minority in Kosovo.
Last November, Nastic had an unusual meeting for a politician of her caliber. In one picture, she looks funny. She met with senior Serbian politicians, including then-Defense Minister Miloš Vučević, who is now Serbia’s prime minister. He is accused of using nationalism and close ties with Russia. He made the former intelligence chief, who is on the US sanctions list for drug and arms trafficking and has been honored by Russian President Vladimir Putin with the “Order of Friendship”, his deputy. All of these meetings, Nastic has made public in its travel reports on its website. Whether Lovic organized these meetings or was present, the deputy refused to answer.
A meeting of Nastic is particularly important about Lovic: in March of this year, she met with the director for diaspora at the Serbian Foreign Ministry. Arno Gujon is a Serb-French nationalist with anti-Muslim and anti-Western stances who has been active in the far-right Identarian movement in France. In Kosovo, he was banned from entering. According to media reports, he is suspected of spying for Serbia and Russia – Kosovo authorities did not answer this. Nastic did not make this meeting with Gujon public on its website – but Gujon and Serbian media did. Her collaborator Lovic seems to know Gujarat well, as he was also in Belgrade in March according to Instagram Stories. Gujon does not appear in them, but Lovic has met politicians from right-wing government parties several times, including Gujo in March 2021. Photos from this meeting were also shared by Gujon. On Instagram, Lovic wrote that it was an honor to talk to him about the diaspora and that he was the right person for the post.
Their relationship goes beyond just meetings: Gujon is in charge of the Serbian diaspora around the world, while Lovic is on the board of the Soo, which officially co-operates with the Serbian authorities.
When asked if these and other contacts had been established by Lovic, Nastic did not answer. However, Lovic’s employment as an associate coincides with the timing of his trip.
Just a short time after CORRECTIV’s request, Lovic’s name was deleted from the Nastic website. CORRECTIV writes that the working relationship with Lovic will end at the end of October. Nastic declined to answer for the reasons behind this. According to CORRECTIV’s research, Nastic was under pressure and forced to remove Lovic.
Some politicians who know Nasti 8 from the committees, do not trust her. According to Sara Nanni, a member of the Greens on the Defense Committee, Nastic asks questions that may interest Russia. “I don’t ask questions about sensitive information sometimes so that information doesn’t go to Russia. Mrs. Nastic and BSW are one reason for this,” she says. According to CORRECTIV information, Nastic is particularly interested in the Ukrainian device or security details related to Kosovo and Serbia. This is evident from the questions she asks.
The right to self-determination according to Russian interpretation in his speech at the “multipolarity conference”, Lovic described Serbia as a victim of Western hegemony, which was losing its sovereignty in Kosovo. The NATO intervention in 1999 was used by Russian propaganda to justify the attack on Ukraine. On Russia’s violations of international law, Lovic did not speak out. Thus, Lovic matched the tone of Dugin’s conference-and the Russian government’s.
The opening speech at the conference was held by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. He said the transformation towards multipolarity is”inevitable”. A press statement from Lavrov’s ministry said the conference was an “important intellectual contribution” to defending the right of self-determination of peoples “without outside interference, without diktat and blackmail”. A year after the Russian attack on Ukraine, these words sound like a mockery.
Andreja Lovic, who described Dugin’s conference as an “important forum”, did not respond until the article was published.
As a founding member and member of the party’s board, Nastic seems to influence the foreign policy course of BSW. A spokesman for the press of BSW responded to CORRECTIV’s questions only by saying that the employment of associates belongs only to MPs and that the party does not influence this.
