site.btaSerbia Searches for Migrant In Connection With Attempted Sabotage on Balkan Stream Pipeline

The director of Serbia’s Military Security Agency, Djuro Jovanic, commented on Sunday’s operation in the municipality of Kanjiza in the northern part of the country, where explosives were found near the Balkan Stream gas pipeline, local media reported. Jovanic said that the operation in Kanjiza had been preceded by solid fieldwork and that “they had information that an individual from a group of migrants, who had undergone military training, would attempt to sabotage gas infrastructure on the country’s territory.”

On Sunday, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic stated that Serbian special forces had discovered explosive materials “with destructive power” and detonators needed to activate them in the Kanjiza area, near gas infrastructure connecting Serbia and Hungary, which is part of the Balkan Stream pipeline.

Later, the Higher Prosecutor’s Office in the northern Serbian city of Subotica classified the case as “illegal production, possession, and trafficking of weapons and explosives in connection with sabotage.”

The director of Serbia’s Military Security Agency, Djuro Jovanic, stressed that the wanted individual will be apprehended.

The Balkan Stream gas pipeline is an extension of the TurkStream pipeline, which runs under the Black Sea and aims to transport Russian gas to Serbia and Hungary, AFP notes. Serbia is highly dependent on it, as most of the gas it uses comes from Russia at a price significantly lower than the market price in Europe.

Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said yesterday that Budapest views the incident in Kanjiza as “an attack against the country’s sovereignty,” since this pipeline supplies the bulk of gas coming from Russia.