Russian President Vladimir Putin has awarded the former chief of Serbia's Security and Information Agency (BIA), Aleksandar Vulin, with the Order of Friendship, the right-wing pro-Russian Socialist Movement party said on January 30. Vulin was honored for his "significant personal contribution to the development and improvement of cooperation" between the BIA and Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service, the Vulin-founded Socialist Movement said. A former interior minister and longtime ally of Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic, Vulin resigned from the BIA in November after being placed in July on the U.S. sanctions list for corruption, involvement in drug trafficking, and ties to Russia. To read the original story by RFE/RL's Balkan Service, click here.
