Politics

ZAGREB, 13 April 2022 - The Soviet-era military drone that crashed in Zagreb last month was armed, it carrying a bomb in place of a camera, Nova TV reported on Tuesday night citing sources close to the investigation. The TU-141 unmanned aerial vehicle crashed near a student dorm in the Jarun district of southwest Zagreb shortly after 11 pm on 10 March, damaging about 40 cars in a nearby car park, but injuring no one. It came from Ukraine, having flown over NATO members Romania and Hungary before crashing in the Croatian capital after running out of fuel. It remains…

ZAGREB, 12 April 2022 - The Russian Federation has expressed a strong protest to Croatia over the expulsion of 24 Russian Embassy staff, threatening "response measures", TASS news agency said on Tuesday. "On April 11, the Croatian Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs notified about the decision to reduce the staff of the Russian embassy in Zagreb and expel 24 employees of the Russian diplomatic mission. We express our strong protest against this deliberately unfriendly and absolutely ungrounded step, which has a destructive impact on the entire spectrum of Russian-Croatian relations," Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a statement…

ZAGREB, 12 April 2022 - Croatian Attorney-General Zlata Hrvoj Šipek met in Zagreb on Tuesday with the Chief Prosecutor of the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals (MICT), Serge Brammertz, for talks on cooperation with the MICT and with neighbouring countries regarding war crimes prosecution. The International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals is mandated to perform a number of essential functions previously carried out by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) and the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY). In carrying out these essential functions the Mechanism maintains the legacies of these two pioneering ad hoc international criminal courts and…

ZAGREB, 12 April 2022 - The Russian diplomats expelled by Croatia have until 25 April to leave the country, Ambassador Andrey Nesterenko told the Rossiya-24 broadcaster. They have been given until 25 April to leave the country, the TASS news agency quoted the ambassador as saying. "That is a serious blow to our bilateral relations because the expelled diplomats are upstanding people," he said. Croatia on Monday said that it would expel 18 Russian diplomats and six members of the administrative and technical staff. By doing so Croatia has joined a number of European countries that have done the same "due…

11 April 2022 - Croatia has expelled 18 Russian diplomats and six members of administrative staff, the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs said in a statement on Monday. Croatia notified the Russian ambassador about the reduction of the number of diplomatic and administrative staff at the Russian Embassy on Monday. "Eighteen diplomats and six members of administrative staff (24 employees in total) at the Embassy of the Russian Federation have been asked to leave the Republic of Croatia," the statement said. Croatia thus joined other European countries, including Poland, Germany, France, Italy and Spain, in expelling Russian diplomats over…

ZAGREB, 10 April 2022 - The Croatian War Veterans Ministry on Sunday distanced itself from its envoy Matko Raos' statement, made at an event marking the 31st anniversary of a Croatian Defence Forces (HOS) unit in Split, when he said that "today's Croatia would not exist if there had not been for 10 April 1941." On 10 April 1941 the establishment of the Nazi-allied Independent State of Croatia (NDH) was proclaimed. "We emphasise that Mr Raos gave the statement on his behalf and not on behalf of the Ministry and we distance ourselves from it," the ministry said, noting that Raos had…

ZAGREB, 10 April 2022 - The Social Democratic Party on Sunday condemned a statement by the War Veterans Minister's envoy, Matko Raos, who at a commemoration for a Croatian Defence Forces (HOS) unit in Split said that "today's Croatia would not exist if it had not been for 10 April 1941." The SDP also called on the government to distance itself from Raos' statement. Earlier on Sunday, during a ceremony at which wreaths were laid at a memorial to members of the HOS 9th Battalion "Rafael vitez Boban" killed in the 1991-95 Homeland War, Raos said: "You have to know, if…

ZAGREB, 10 April 2022 - Members of the Croatian Defence Forces (HOS) 9th Battalion "Rafael vitez Boban" on Sunday laid wreaths and lit candles at a memorial in Split for the battalion's members killed in the 1991-95 Homeland War, on the 31st anniversary of the unit. "We are standing here before this wounded memorial, proud of them and their courage. Shame on cowards, deserters, lovers of the red star who spit on HOS. All defenders were 'for the homeland ready' in the Homeland War, that salute is not an expression of hate but of love for one's home and Croat people," said…

ZAGREB, 10 April 2022 - Croatia has adopted the fewest relevant standards of the six current candidates for accession to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), and its chief negotiator Gordan Grlić Radman believes talks could be completed in two and a half to three years. The OECD formally launched accession talks with six candidate countries on 25 January. Croatia has adopted 29 legal instruments of a total of 253 required by the Paris-based club of industrially developed countries. Brazil has adopted 105 instruments, Romania 56, Argentina 51, Peru 46 and Bulgaria 33, according to data from the…

April the 10th, 2022 - Is Croatia expelling Russian diplomats in the face of the horrendous invasion of Ukraine and the alleged war crimes that have since taken place there at the hands of Russian troops? The sanction list of Russian names is long indeed and the Security and Intelligence Agency is also involved. As Morski writes, five months after, as he put it, he "discovered the warm and poetic soul of Sergei" and read poetry by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Russian, Croatian Foreign and European Affairs Minister Gordan Grlic Radman has written a decision to expel Russian…