ZAGREB, 3 Feb 2022 - President and Armed Forces Commander in Chief Zoran Milanović on Thursday decorated retired Colonel Danijel Borović, who was the first to fly a Yugoslav People's Army MIG over to the Croatian side in February 1992, for the bravery and heroism displayed in the Homeland War.

On the 30th anniversary of that flight, the president thanked Borović for his brave act, saying that in the history of the Croatian war some names were rightfully and respectfully known to the wider public and children.

"One of the names that, without reason or justification, is not as well-known is your honourable name, Danijel Borović, colonel of the Croatian Army and the Croatian Air Force, the man who was the first to bring a supersonic fighter jet into Croatian ownership," the president said.

He recalled that in February 1992, after his fellow fighter Rudolf Perišin flew across the border, Borović landed a MIG-21 at the Pula airport in the dark after "dangerously, skillfully, heroically and riskily" separating from a fighter duo, putting the aircraft "into the functional use of the Croatian Air Force, which was just being created."

Great heroic act

"That's a great heroic act because heroism, and only then ownership, is reflected in the choices you had and how you could have acted but did not. You could have left, you could have simply come one day to one of our Croatian commands and registered. What you did surpasses that first option many times," Milanović said.

He said Borović had risked his life not only to bring Croatia a fighter jet but also to make that a very significant and visible way of lifting Croatia's morale at that time.

Thanking the president for the decoration, Borović said it was in a way compensation for what he should have received 27 years ago when many people were decorated in the president's office.

He said injustice was done at that time not just to him but also to his wife and five-year-old son Vanja who had been involved in months-long preparations. "We have made it and this award has found its place after 27 years. I thank you for that."

Borović said that despite the disappointment at that time, he and his wife Snježana wrote a book, "Flyover for Croatia", which he said could be used as a textbook because it described what had been happening in 1992.

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ZAGREB, 2 Feb 2022 - Parliamentary opposition parties on Wednesday mostly agreed with President Zoran Milanović's statement that if only half of what whistleblower Maja Đerek had said about the Državne Nekretnine state property management company was true, it was reason enough for the government to fall.

Social Democrat Ivana Posavec Krivec said there was no reason to doubt Đerek's statement and that Parliament should investigate further. 

Bridge's Marija Selak Raspudić said that the government should fall first and foremost because of its failure to rebuild Zagreb and the Banovina region after the earthquakes, and because of its incompetence and irresponsibility which put citizens in a highly unfavourable position.

Sandra Benčić of the Green-Left Bloc said that it was the government's duty to allow for Đerek's allegations to be investigated, rather than allow its minister to argue with the former Državne Nekretnine employee through the media. 

"We want to see if the allegations are true, and if they are, someone should take responsibility, and that for sure is Minister Mario Banožić at least," Benčić said, adding that there were many other reasons for the government to fall.

"To begin with, there is no post-earthquake reconstruction. Then there is the pandemic, in which we have become the worst in the world in terms of the number of deaths per million people. There are corruption scandals cropping up one after another. The only thing worse than economic inflation is inflation of their corruption scandals," Benčić said.

Vesna Vučemilović of the Croatian Sovereignists said, "what is worrying is the fact that not just state officials, but civil servants such as heads of directorates, also use state-owned apartments."

"Calling for the fall of the government is rhetoric appropriate to opposition politicians, but President Milanović is part of the government. His rhetoric is a bit strange and I would prefer him to pay more attention to demographics and other vital issues," Vučemilović added.

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ZAGREB, 1 Feb 2022 - The ruling HDZ's political secretary said on Tuesday that with his latest statements, President Zoran Milanović was trying to remove the government, waging a political coup against it and meddling in the work of state institutions, which he said was unprecedented in Croatian history.

"Since 2000, this is the first time that the president of the republic is waging a political coup against the Croatian government and trying to remove the government, and all based on a whistleblower," Ante Sanader told the press.

He said the president was also exerting direct pressure on institutions and estimated that he "became like this after the JANAF case," wondering if anything in that corruption scandal was connected to Milanović.

"That's an interesting question for the public," Sanader said and mentioned Milanović's consulting services worth HRK 2 million.

"From whom did he get two million? Was that corruption? Did that, together with that secret trip to Albania, trigger this situation (his conduct) concerning the topic of Ukraine? Were some contracts concluded there, some partnerships?"

Sanader said the public had the right to know if that incident upset the president.

He said Milanović was making Croatia row with everyone. "Today with the British defence secretary, recently by calling out Austria for fascism, then spitting on Hungary, Bosnia and Herzegovina."

Sanader said he would insist on shedding light on many past issues connected to Milanović such as "from whom did he buy his flat, paying for it in four installments, and getting a loan aged 42 when they were intended for those under 35."

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ZAGREB, 1 Feb 2022 - There is no European, Western European or EU stability without Russia and it is necessary to reach an agreement with it, Croatian President Zoran Milanović said on Tuesday, accusing the West of inciting a war that he hopes will not break out.

"I don't even want one Ukrainian to be killed, even one Russian. As for Croats, not a chance," he told the press.

"There is no European stability, no Western European stability or European Union stability without Russia in the equation, and it's necessary to reach an agreement with Russia."

After telling a female journalist that a head of state does not meet with visiting defence ministers, including the British defence secretary who was in Zagreb today, Milanović speculated that she wanted to ask him for a comment on Great Britain's stand on Ukraine.

"Everything he is doing is mostly motivated by his political situation at home," he said about Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

In Great Britain, there are more and more calls on Johnson to resign over Downing Street parties during a strict COVID lockdown.

Milanović accused Britain of "mongering" and said that pushing Ukraine towards a confrontation with Russia was "irresponsible."

"Ukraine will not make itself happy if it listens to London. They are pushing them into a very dangerous adventure and President (Volodymyr) Zelensky has realised this. What I have been hearing from Kyiv in the past few days is very sensible and responsible towards one's own state."

Milanović has been criticised after saying recently that Ukraine does not belong in NATO, that it is corrupt and that Croatian soldiers will not be killed there. The Croatian ambassador in Kyiv was summoned for talks after those statements.

Ukraine's friend

Milanović said today that he was Ukraine's friend and that it was very irresponsible to mislead a state. He spoke of difficult problems Ukraine faced as it was not progressing towards EU membership and was stagnating, whilst being held hostage by London and Washington.

He also said that the EU was sending Ukraine confusing messages. "To stand in solidarity with Ukraine and say 'we support you, clash with Russia' is irresponsible, villainous."

Milanović said one should not foment arguments that Russia will attack Ukraine tomorrow. "If it attacks them, one should ask who is responsible for that."

"The Croatian soldier will not move from here," he added.

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ZAGREB, 30 Jan 2022 - The prime minister's chief of staff, Zvonimir Frka Petešić, said on Saturday that President Zoran Milanović was using a low level of incitement and a tabloid rhetoric against him and using him to discredit PM Andrej Plenković and his cabinet.

"President Milanović promised normality in his campaign, but no one expected this low level of incitement, this tabloid rhetoric," he told Jutarnji List daily, adding that the president's attempt to use him to discredit the prime minister and his cabinet is a "pathetic and futile attack. It won't work. We are not the same nor can we be."

"Milanović is making rude insults, fabrications and false accusations with the intention to hide his own scandals, doing particular damage to Croatia on the international level," Frka Petešić said, adding that Milanović is acting like that "probably because he thinks it improves his approval rating."

This raises the issue of the president's accountability and morality, he said, adding that Milanović has deeply hurt him and is repeatedly calling him a criminal by using the fact that during his term in office, he cannot be held to account and is hiding behind the security of his position.

"I repeat, I am not a permanent resident of Zagreb nor did I falsely register my permanent residence. I acted as instructed by the competent services at the Interior Ministry," Frka Petešić said in the interview ih which he explained why he had applied for an official flat in Zagreb.

Asked if he was considering resigning as a liability to the government and the prime minister, he said that if anyone found a property in his or his wife's name in Croatia or anywhere else, they should report it and he would immediately resign.

Asked why he had asked for an official flat in Zagreb if he has one in Zagreb's Dubrava District, Frka Petešić said he and his family have been living in Zagreb since 2011 as tenants.

"I'm not the owner of any property nor will I be the owner of the flat I was given to use and for which I pay HRK 5 per square metre, at the same price and rules as other officials, in line with a decision from 2001. Also, as a tenant, I have been paying Zagreb's local tax of 18%, the highest in the state, as all Zagreb residents."

He added that he has not "evaded paying even one lipa, as some who have been writing about me these days have done", and that he has not defrauded the state budget. "Everything else is a fabrication and a political campaign against me, in which the president has now joined, too."

Asked why he registered his permanent residence in Sali on Dugi Otok island just a day before taking office, Frka Petešić said that was incorrect and that he did so "a month after taking office, while I was applying for an official flat. Among the documents required was the certificate of permanent residence, although a place of permanent residence is not a requirement for being allocated a flat."

He said it had been a mistake not to register permanent residence for the whole family in Sali. "We were busy moving and packing, and my wife planned to regulate that after the move, but she forgot. Now that's been corrected and she registered her permanent residence in Sali, as did my older daughter, while their temporary residence is registered in Jurišićeva Street in Zagreb.

He added that a day after moving into the official flat in Jurišićeva in mid-October, he registered his temporary residence there.

Asked why his family is still registered as living at a friends' flat in Zagreb, Frka Petešić said it was an administrative error that was corrected after he reported it to the police.

"My family has been living with me the whole time," he said, except the younger daughter who is studying in France. "As I explained, we all have permanent residence in Sali and temporary residence in Zagreb, in Jurišićeva, in the official flat where we live while I hold this temporary office. According to the relevant services at the Interior Ministry, that was the only logical option in our atypical situation."

Frka Petešić said he was told at the ministry that he would have committed a misdemeanor only if he had registered permanent residence in Sali and been living in Zagreb without having registered temporary residence in Zagreb. He added that all his ancestors were from Dugi Otok and that is his only connection to the island.

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ZAGREB, 28 Jan 2022 - President Zoran Milanović on Friday accused the government of Prime Minister Andrej Plenković as the most corrupt Croatian government yet.

"Plenković is protecting the people who are simply corrupt. I cannot call it any other way," Milanović said in an interview with RTL television.

Milanović said that Plenković's chief of staff Zvonimir Frka Petešić had deliberately registered his residence on Dugi Otok island so that he could qualify for a state-owned apartment in Zagreb. 

Frka Petešić "is fully aware that what he has done is punishable under the law, yet he enjoys the prime minister's protection," he added.

Milanović rejected the idea of his being an opposition leader in Croatia. "Not only am I not, but I feel bad in this position. All this that I am saying, which I have to say and will keep on saying, is just an unnecessary burden to me. This should not be my job."

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ZAGREB, 28 Jan 2022 - Interior Minister Davor Božinović said on Friday that messages on security issues are not disseminated at news conferences, after he was asked by the press about speculations that President Zoran Milanović's security is at risk following his statements on the situation in Ukraine.

"The basic principle is that security issues should not be discussed publicly. As far as our services are concerned and that refers to security and intelligence services and the Interior Ministry, they do their job 24 hours a day and I am certain that they are monitoring everything that is relevant to the security of Croatian citizens, including protected persons," said Božinović.

Božinović added that security services cooperate with other services and underscored that a press conference is not the place to send messages of that kind.

"Not any serious person, not any service in any country, talks about that in public space," said Božinović.

After President Milanović's statement that Croatia would not interfere in the Ukraine crisis, that it would not deploy its troops there and that NATO has nothing to do in Ukraine, he was denounced as pro-Russian collaborator on Ukraine's online blacklist.

Responding to reporters, Božinović said that the motion for a no-confidence vote in Minister of Physical Planning, Construction and State Assets Darko Horvat would end just like all of the opposition's previous initiatives.

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ZAGREB, 28 Jan 2022 - Spies, priests, prosecutors and journalists; the innocent and the guilty alike are denounced as pro-Russian collaborators on Ukraine's online blacklist.

"Some of those on the 'Myrotvorets' database may have been involved in acts of propaganda or heinous war crimes in the country's east, but others have done nothing more than offend political or popular sensitivity, or simply use the 'wrong' vernacular'," the London-based The Times reports.

"It matters not: one and all are judged by a hidden panel, accused of 'deliberate acts against the national security of Ukraine' and have their personal data published alongside their supposed crimes for all to see."

"As the threat of Russian invasion mounts, antagonising political schisms and stoking invective within Ukraine, neither rank nor reputation exempts individuals from accusation by Myrotvorets," the Ukrainian nationalist website, says The Times.

(Screenshot)

The newspaper published its article on the Ukrainian name-and-shame list two days before Croatian President Zoran Milanović ended up on it.

He is accused of humanitarian aggression against Ukraine, of aiding the Russian aggression, disseminating Russian propaganda and supporting and justifying the Russian aggression against Ukraine.

Milanović ended up on the list for saying that Croatia will not in any way get involved in the Ukraine crisis in case of its escalation and that it will not deploy its troops there.

He has also said that Ukraine does not belong in NATO and that the European Union triggered a coup d'etat in Ukraine in 2014 when the pro-Russian president Viktor Yanukovych was ousted.

The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry on Wednesday summoned Croatian Ambassador Anica Džamić to protest against Milanović's statements, which, conversely, were applauded in Russia.

Milanović's inclusion on the Myrotvorets database blacklist was confirmed also by Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexei Zaitsev at a regular press conference on Thursday.

The list contains as many as 187,000 names, including not only war criminals and Russian FSB secret service agents but also Pink Floyd founder Roger Waters, who three years ago said Russia had more rights to Crimea than Ukraine.

Belarusian writer, Nobel Prize winner and Kremlin critic Svetlana Alexievich has ended up on the list just for mentioning that some ethnic Ukrainians helped Nazis in the persecution of Jews.

The list also includes 500 Ukrainian civil servants, ethnic Hungarians, who have obtained Hungarian passports. The reason - Ukraine prohibits dual citizenship, and Myrotvorets considers such an act of treason.

The database was established in 2014 after a meeting of Ukrainian politician George Tuka and a former member of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), known only by his pseudonym Roman Zaitsev, The Times says.

Tuka told The Times that former police officers, former soldiers and some political figures continued to have pro-Russian views and that lack of an official database with their names was the reason why Myrotvorets was created.

Several people were killed after their names and addresses ended up on the database. Tuka claims there is no connection between that and the database but notes that those were enemies of Ukraine and that he does not miss them.

The list also includes data on around 4,500 Western, Ukrainian and Russian reporters who had accreditations of the separatist authorities of Donbas, which was a condition for them to work in the area controlled by pro-Russian forces. Many of them later received threats.

The list is very dangerous and should be removed immediately. The tension is already high and it only adds fuel to the fire, former Human Rights Watch official in Ukraine Yulia Gorbunova said.

The removal of the list has been requested a number of times by the UN, G7 and EU ambassadors and human rights groups, but to no avail.

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ZAGREB, 27 Jan 2022 - Foreign Minister Gordan Grlić Radman said on Thursday that because of President Zoran Milanović's statements about Ukraine, he had to call nearly every one of his counterparts and apologise.

Milanović said on Tuesday that Ukraine did not belong in NATO, that it was one of the world's most corrupt countries, that president Viktor Yanukovych was overthrown in 2014 in a military coup, and that the crisis on the Ukraine-Russia border was a consequence of the US home policy.

Ukraine issued a strong response and Milanović's statements were reported by world media.

"We are appalled. I, as minister, have indeed a heavy burden and responsibility because of the ambassadors, who have been besieging me, asking what to say and how, how to communicate," Grlić Radman told the press.

"I have to call nearly every minister and apologise, say that what Milanović said is not the government's official position."

He said there was allegedly an initiative in Ukraine to declare Milanović persona non grata.

"I think the Croatian state doesn't deserve such behaviour" from the president, the minister said, "the Croatian state created with the blood of Croatian defenders, which was led by the visionary first Croatian president Franjo Tuđman, who would certainly turn in his grave were he to hear such a narrative."

He said this was an attempt "to destabilise the Croatian authorities" and that it had caused Croatia "big reputational damage" in the international community.

Ukraine is not the first state with which Milanović has managed to "make Croatia quarrel" as ambassadors have been summoned because of his statements also in Bulgaria, Austria, Hungary, and Bosnia and Herzegovina, he added.

Grlić Radman expects of the president "a constructive policy, one which will promote peace, stability and cooperation, send positive, affirmative messages, which will result in cooperation with other presidents and which will contribute to the further affirmation of Croatia's foreign policy."

ZAGREB, 26 Jan 2022 - President Zoran Milanović on Wednesday met with representatives of SOS Zagreb, an association of citizens founded a year ago with the aim of ensuring a faster and better reconstruction of properties in Zagreb damaged by the March 2020 earthquake.

Members of the association informed the president of the obstacles and problems encountered by citizens in efforts to have their properties reconstructed. They warned of the danger that time would run out to apply for funds under the EU Solidarity Fund to be used for post-earthquake reconstruction and that the cost of reconstruction of many Zagreb hospitals, schools and kindergartens would eventually have to be covered by taxpayers, the Office of the President said in a statement.

The meeting pointed to the lack of a central body in charge of post-earthquake reconstruction as the key reason why reconstruction was slow and ineffective.

This has resulted in only 75 properties in Zagreb undergoing reconstruction two years since the earthquake, the association's members said.

Private reconstruction is encouraged, however, numerous buildings are not creditworthy, which is a problem that requires the state's help in the form of faster compensation for private funds invested, while reconstruction should be compulsory, it was said at the meeting.

For more, check out our dedicated politics section.