BELGRADE, Serbia — Serbia’s future prime minister on Tuesday proposed a staunchly pro-Russia official as the defense minister, dampening hopes in the West that her nomination signaled a shift away from Russia’s influence.
State TV said Prime Minister-designate Ana Brnabic, who would be conservative Serbia’s first female and first openly gay government leader, proposed a list of Cabinet ministers for adoption by parliament. It included Aleksandar Vulin, a former labor minister, to head the Defense Ministry.
As a government minister, Vulin has called NATO — which bombed Serbia in 1999 over its crackdown against ethnic Albanian separatists — an “evil” organization and has taken part in numerous verbal outbursts against the West and officials from neighboring Kosovo, Croatia and Bosnia, which has fueled ethnic tensions in the war-torn Balkans.
Brnabic’s list includes several other openly pro-Russian and anti-Western ministers, including Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic.
Brnabic is expected to take office this week after a vote in parliament, which is considered a formality.
When Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic earlier this month nominated the U.S.- and U.K.-educated Brnabic to succeed him as prime minister, it was seen as his attempt to calm Western concerns that Serbia was getting too close to Russia despite its proclaimed goal of joining the European Union.