After being returned to Belgrade, plane carrying Bajatovic, Vulin and Popovic lands in Moscow

BELGRADE - Srbijagas Director Dusan Bajatovic said on Wednesday a plane carrying him, Srbijagas Supervisory Board President Aleksandar Vulin and Serbian caretaker minister without portfolio Nenad Popovic had landed in Moscow after being returned to Belgrade on Tuesday evening.

"Vulin, Popovic and I were on the plane. We are alive and kicking - it took us two flights to land," Bajatovic told the Blic daily.

He said his trip to Moscow had to do with problems with natural gas supply and with payment operations following the collapse of Alta banka.

Hours after taking off at the Nikola Tesla Airport, an Air Serbia jet was returned to Belgrade but subsequently set off for Moscow again and landed in the Russian capital on Wednesday morning.

On Tuesday evening, Air Serbia said the Moscow-bound scheduled JU134 flight had returned to Belgrade after the airline had received information from the relevant airport services that had required additional security checks on one passenger.

Democratic Party leader Srdjan Milivojevic was the first to mention the flight on Tuesday in an X post that read: "Who is fleeing to Moscow on a 6.30 pm flight this evening?"

The Nova and N1 Internet news portals were the first to report that the plane was returning to Belgrade, alleging that Vulin had failed to undergo security checks.

Speaking to N1 on Tuesday evening, Bajatovic said that, after the unplanned return to Belgrade, a detailed security check had been performed on all passengers and luggage on the plane.

"It was only after we landed in Belgrade that we were informed that we have to undergo an entirely new procedure - a detailed check of everyone's luggage was carried out without any particular reasons being given as to why that was done, except that it was according to the procedure," Bajatovic said.

In a statement to Informer, Vulin said he had passed all security checks and that the order to return the plane to Belgrade was "harassment" and "an attempt by some to show to the new authorities that they are defenders of their ideology, even at an airport."

He categorically denied allegations that he had refused to take off his belt during security checks and dismissed claims that he had been carrying a large quantity of gold as untrue.

Vulin noted that, even before the actual order to return the plane to Belgrade had come, some internet portals had reported that the flight was returning.