Bosnian Defense Minister Zukan Helez was harshly criticized when he said in November 2023 that there were training camps for Russian special forces and intelligence officers in Republika Srpska, the Serb-dominated, Kremlin-friendly region of the western Balkan country. But a year later, Russian intelligence officer Alexander Bezrukovni was arrested in the northwestern municipality of Bosanska Krupa.
Bezrukovni is suspected of sabotage, terrorism and training pro-Russia forces. According to the Bosnian daily Dnevni Avaz, he trained a group of Moldovans near the city of Banja Luka in tactics to commit violent acts against the pro-EU government in Moldova, with the aim of preventing the former Soviet republic from joining the European Union. The group is reportedly connected to the euroskeptic Sor party led by the pro-Russia oligarch and former parliamentarian Ilan Shor. The party has been banned in Moldova since June 2023.
On February 14, Bezrukovni was extradited from Bosnia to Poland, where he stands accused of coordinating attacks against EU and NATO member Poland, its neighbor Germany, the United States and other Western allies.
“A Russian hiding in Bosnia-Herzegovina, suspected of coordinating acts of sabotage against Poland, the US and other allies, was extradited to Poland and arrested by court order,” Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk wrote on X. “Great work by the ABW [Internal Security Agency, the Polish domestic intelligence service] and the prosecutor’s office. Russian hostile activities confirmed.”
‘A dangerous terrorist’
Helez told DW that he sees the arrest and extradition of Bezrukovni as confirmation of his 2023 assertion that Moldova had known about Russian training camps in Bosnia.
“At the time, I was viciously attacked verbally and in the media by Republika Srpska […] which claimed that such camps did not exist,” Helez said. “But now, after a dangerous terrorist who worked for Russia was arrested and extradited to Poland, everyone is silent.”
Bosnia-Herzegovina is not a weak link in the fight against Russian influence in the Western Balkans and Europe, Helez said. Still, Bosnian authorities are unhappy that Moldovan intelligence services found out before they did that pro-Russia elements were being trained in their country. Helez said Bezrukovni was supported by “individuals and groups in Republika Srpska.”
Sarajevo-based defense and security expert Nedzad Ahatovic told DW that Bezrukovni was part of a Russian Federal Security Service network and responsible for a “logistical base for training saboteurs and deploying them in various locations.”
“Saboteurs trained in Bosnia, Moldova and other places carried out various tasks, including drone flights over the Ramstein US airbase in Germany and sabotage of defense industry facilities and their subcontractors,” said Ahatovic. The arrest and extradition of Bezrukovni has “cut off a logistical corridor for the financing of Russian subversive activities,” he said. “The question remains as to how many more such centers there are in Europe.”
Abdulah Keranovic, police spokesman in the Bosnian canton of Una-Sana, where Bezrukovni was arrested in November, told DW that the operation was in cooperation with the domestic intelligence service OSA under an Interpol arrest warrant.
“We had found out that there is a foreign citizen with the initials A.B. in our area who was staying illegally in Bosnia-Herzegovina and suspected of possessing forged documents,” he said. Bosnian media report that Bezrukovni had been under OSA observation for some time. The arrest took place when he tried to leave the country.
Dusko Vejnovic, professor at the Faculty of Security Policy at the University of Banja Luka, told DW that secret service agents often use legal documents to travel undetected — and that forging identity papers is no problem for them. “It is logical that Russian officials reject the incriminating accusations against Bezrukovni. Now evidence must be found that he belonged to a network that worked against the interests of Poland and other countries,” he said.
In October, the US embassy in the Bosnia’s capital, Sarajevo, had reported disturbing accounts of Russians associated with private military groups operating a camp in Republika Srpska and training individuals to obstruct democratic processes in Moldova. According to the US foreign broadcaster Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, there is also evidence of locations in Bosnia and neighboring Serbia where young people are being trained by operatives linked to private Russian mercenary armies such as the Wagner Group.
This article was originally written in German.
