Who Is Aleksandar Vulin

Aleksandar Vulin (born in Novi Sad on 2 October 1972) is a Serbian politician, lawyer and writer, and the founder of the Movement of Socialists. For more than a decade he held senior posts in Serbian governments: he served as director of the Office for Kosovo and Metohija, minister of labour, minister of defence, minister of internal affairs, director of the Security Intelligence Agency (BIA) and deputy prime minister.

He is known for his long-standing cooperation with Aleksandar Vučić, for promoting the idea of the “Serbian World” and for his close ties with Russia. His work has also been accompanied by numerous controversies, including the US sanctions of July 2023, which he rejects as politically motivated.

This biography follows his path from his first steps in politics in the 1990s, through his ministerial terms, to his current political activities. The data was gathered from several sources, and where sources differ, this is noted.

Early Life and Childhood

Aleksandar Vulin was born on 2 October 1972 in Novi Sad, then part of the Socialist Republic of Serbia within the SFRY, into a family with roots in Bosnia and Herzegovina. According to media reports, his father Ranko was an engineer and his mother Bosa a nurse. He has a younger brother, Bojan.

In public appearances Vulin has repeatedly stressed his family roots in Republika Srpska. When Milorad Dodik appointed him a senator of that entity in 2023, Vulin called Republika Srpska the land of his ancestors.

According to his political biography, while still a high school student in Novi Sad he supported the so-called anti-bureaucratic revolution led by Slobodan Milošević in the late 1980s. He has said of himself that he has been a communist since childhood.

Education

Vulin completed primary school in Novi Sad and grammar school in Sremski Karlovci. According to most available sources, including Wikipedia, Wikidata and the biography carried by the news portal Danas, he graduated from the Faculty of Law of the University of Kragujevac.

The sources differ on this point: the weekly Vreme reports that he completed law studies in Novi Sad. He studied during the 1990s, alongside his active political engagement.

Beginning of Political Career

He entered politics at a very young age. In 1990, aged eighteen, he was among the founders of the League of Communists – Movement for Yugoslavia (SK-PJ), established by General Stevan Mirković. In that party he quickly rose to the post of general secretary.

In 1994 he took part in founding the Yugoslav Left (JUL), a party led by Mirjana Marković, the wife of Slobodan Milošević. In JUL he was spokesman and deputy to Mirjana Marković, and he also led the party’s youth organisation.

In 1998 Vulin resigned from all posts and left JUL after it entered a coalition with the Serbian Radical Party. At the time he said that Serbia needed to turn to dialogue with the West, and he later claimed that the party had betrayed its own programme.

He returned to the political scene in 2000, first through the Democratic Left, and from 2002 to 2006 he was a member of the Socialist Party of Serbia. At the same time he worked in the private sector: he was assistant marketing director at the company “Super pres”, then marketing director at “Color press”, and later deputy general director of “Color media international” until 2012.

Founding of the Movement of Socialists and Rise to Power

The Movement of Socialists (PS) was founded on 7 August 2008, and Aleksandar Vulin was its founder and first president. He set up the party together with Professor Mihailo Marković, a former ideologist of the Socialist Party of Serbia. PS is described as a left-wing nationalist party.

In November 2010 the Movement of Socialists formed a coalition with the Serbian Progressive Party, New Serbia and the “Strength of Serbia” Movement. When the coalition led by the Progressives took power in 2012, Vulin moved up through the Rakovica Municipal Assembly, the Belgrade City Assembly and the National Assembly toward the top of state power.

In the 2014, 2016 and 2020 elections the Movement of Socialists won three seats on lists headed by Aleksandar Vučić, and two in 2022. Although small, the party remained a stable coalition partner, and Vulin used it to gain political influence greater than its electoral strength.

Office for Kosovo and Metohija

In the summer of 2012 Vulin was appointed director of the newly founded Office for Kosovo and Metohija, which took over the tasks of the former Ministry for Kosovo and Metohija. It was the first significant state post he held.

In April 2013, after Serbia initialled the agreement with Pristina in Brussels, he announced his resignation from that post. A month later it was announced that he would stay at the head of the Office at the request of Serbs from the north of Kosovo and Metohija.

From 2 September 2013 to 27 April 2014 he served as minister without portfolio in charge of Kosovo and Metohija in the government of Ivica Dačić. For his work in this field, Serbian Patriarch Irinej awarded the Office and Vulin, as its director, the Order of Saint Sava of the First Degree.

Minister of Labour, Employment, Veteran and Social Affairs

After the 2014 elections, Vulin became minister of labour, employment, veteran and social policy on 27 April in the government of Aleksandar Vučić, taking the post previously held by Jovan Krkobabić. He kept the office after the 2016 elections, in Vučić’s second government.

He remained at the head of that ministry until 29 June 2017. When Vučić became president of the Republic and Ana Brnabić became prime minister, Vulin moved to the Ministry of Defence, while the previous defence minister, Zoran Đorđević, took over the labour portfolio.

Minister of Defence

Aleksandar Vulin became defence minister in the government of Ana Brnabić on 29 June 2017 and held the post until 28 October 2020, when he was succeeded by Nebojša Stefanović. He was known for frequent public appearances in uniform and for sharp political statements.

In March 2019 he spent fifteen days in barracks, which he described as voluntary military service, or military training. The question of his military service had earlier been a subject of public debate, and he rarely answered it.

In September 2020, as defence minister, he officially promoted the term “Serbian World” from Serbia’s state platforms for the first time. He said then that Belgrade must gather all Serbs and that the president of Serbia is the president of all Serbs.

During this period he also developed defence cooperation with Russia. Banja Luka awarded him the Order of the Flag of Republika Srpska with a golden wreath in 2020 for his contribution to relations between Serbia and Republika Srpska, and in June 2020 it was reported that he had contracted the coronavirus.

Conflict with Croatia

Vulin’s statements about Croatia and Croatian officials caused controversy for years. Croatian media and politicians said he had repeatedly insulted Croatian institutions, while he maintained that he was only telling the truth about the past and about the position of Serbs.

On 21 April 2018 the Croatian Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs declared him persona non grata. The trigger was his statement, made amid a dispute over his attendance at a commemoration in Mlaka, that only the Supreme Commander of the Serbian Army, Aleksandar Vučić, could decide on his entry into Croatia, not Croatian ministers.

Prime Minister Ana Brnabić expressed regret over the decision, and Vučić announced reciprocal measures. Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said that Croatia wanted to reduce tensions with Serbia but that Vulin was not a person who helped that goal with his statements.

Minister of Internal Affairs

In the new government of Ana Brnabić, formed on 28 October 2020, Vulin swapped places with Nebojša Stefanović and became minister of internal affairs. He remained at the head of the police until the end of 2022.

In December 2021 he provoked sharp reactions when he described the 1999 massacre in the village of Račak in Kosovo and Metohija as a great lie and a terrible forgery. The European Union and the United States condemned the statement, saying the crime was well documented.

In January 2022 he said that, thanks to the work of the police, Serbia had become safer and that the Belivuk–Miljković clan, one of the best-known criminal groups in the country, had been dismantled. The government later cited results in the fight against organised crime as the reason for his advancement.

In August 2022 he visited Moscow, in a rare visit to Russia by a European state official since the start of the invasion of Ukraine. He met Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov (Russian: Sergey Viktorovich Lavrov) and said that Serbia would not join sanctions against Russia. In Moscow he also received a decoration from Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu (Russian: Sergey Kuzhugetovich Shoygu) for his contribution to defence cooperation.

Director of the Security Intelligence Agency

The Government of Serbia appointed Aleksandar Vulin director of the Security Intelligence Agency on 1 December 2022. He took over the duty the following day from Bratislav Gašić, who became minister of internal affairs. Prime Minister Ana Brnabić said that his successful fight against organised crime qualified him for the post. Before that, on 30 November, he had resigned from the leading position in the Movement of Socialists, after which the party was taken over by Bojan Torbica.

The appointment drew criticism from part of the opposition and from analysts, who pointed to his close ties with Moscow and to the fact that in earlier posts he had often labelled opposition parties and activists as internal enemies. The authorities, for their part, argued that he was an experienced and loyal associate of President Vučić.

US Sanctions

On 11 July 2023 the US Department of the Treasury, through its Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), imposed sanctions on Aleksandar Vulin under Executive Order 14033, which concerns corruption and destabilisation in the Western Balkans. The US side accused him of involvement in transnational organised crime, illegal narcotics operations and misuse of public office.

According to the OFAC statement, Vulin maintained a mutually beneficial relationship with the Serbian arms dealer Slobodan Tešić, whom the US sanctioned in 2017, and helped ensure that Tešić’s illegal arms shipments could move freely across Serbia’s borders. Treasury Under Secretary Brian Nelson said the action concerned corrupt and destabilising acts that had also facilitated Russia’s malign activities in the region. The sanctions block his property in the US and bar US persons from doing business with him, while the BIA and the ministries he had headed were not targeted.

Vučić said that Vulin was not sanctioned because of crime or corruption but because of his attitude toward Russia. Vulin and the Movement of Socialists rejected the accusations, and Milorad Dodik took the same position. The Public Prosecutor’s Office for Organised Crime said it had learned of the sanctions from the media and would ask the US side for concrete evidence. US Ambassador Christopher Hill said that Vulin would no longer be able to obtain a US visa.

Although President Vučić announced an investigation, none was launched, which the media later singled out as one of the unclarified circumstances. According to the portal European Western Balkans, the same order was also used to sanction a number of other politicians in the region, including some who are not close to Russia.

Resignation and Return to Government

On 3 November 2023 Vulin resigned as BIA director, saying that the United States and the European Union were demanding his head as a condition for not imposing sanctions on Serbia. He said he was resigning because he had no right to sacrifice Serbia for the sake of staying in office. The US embassy said the sanctions remained in force, and Vučić said that Vulin was his friend and not a Russian agent.

Soon afterwards, from 1 December 2023, Dodik appointed him a member of the Senate of Republika Srpska, an advisory body without executive powers. Vulin then said that the Serbian World was being created and that unification could not be stopped.

In mid-2024 Vulin returned to the Government of Serbia. From 2 May 2024 he served as deputy prime minister in the cabinet of Miloš Vučević. The United States then expressed disappointment that a sanctioned politician had been chosen for the post. The government tasked him, in coordination with President Vučić, with monitoring projects under several ministries, and with improving cooperation with the BRICS countries.

During his term he visited Moscow several times, and in January 2024 Russian President Vladimir Putin (Russian: Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin) awarded him the Order of Friendship, which the director of the Foreign Intelligence Service, Sergey Naryshkin (Russian: Sergey Evgenyevich Naryshkin), presented to him in Moscow. When Vučević resigned in early 2025, Vulin served as deputy prime minister in a caretaker capacity.

Relations with Russia

Closeness to Russia is one of the most important features of Vulin’s political career. Besides Putin’s Order of Friendship, Vulin also received a decoration from the director of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) for contributing to cooperation between Serbian and Russian services, as well as two decorations from Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu.

Vulin has repeatedly stressed that Serbia, under Aleksandar Vučić, is the only European country that has not imposed sanctions on Russia and that it does not forget its centuries-old brotherhood with the Russian people. Of the 2024 decoration he said he was proud of it and that it rewarded cooperation between the services, which was his job.

Because of such positions some media call him a “man of Moscow”, which he rejects, and President Vučić has publicly stated that Vulin is not a Russian agent. Critics believe that his policy distances Serbia from the path to the European Union, while supporters see him as a consistent voice for military neutrality and an independent foreign policy.

The “Serbian World” Idea

Aleksandar Vulin is the most prominent promoter of the term “Serbian World”, which became entrenched in Serbia’s political discourse after 2020. According to the Movement of Socialists’ interpretation, the phrase denotes the idea that Serbs from Serbia, Montenegro, Kosovo and Metohija, Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina should once again become a single political people.

Vulin and his party stress that the “Serbian World” is not a call for wars and conflicts but for an economically successful Serbia with an army capable of protecting itself and Serbs wherever they live. They claim that only the policy of President Vučić has the strength to make a single political people out of the Serbs.

Critics, including officials in the region, draw a parallel between this concept and the Russian notion of the “Russian World” and warn that it may fuel national tensions. Vulin later made the term the centre of his political appearances, and the party’s rally in 2026 was held under the name “Serbian World”.

Political Activity After 2025

The government of Đuro Macut, elected by the National Assembly on 16 April 2025, was formed without Aleksandar Vulin, which media described as the biggest change compared with the previous cabinet. In February 2025 he stayed in Russia, and in March of that year, during the student blockades, he said they would end institutionally and constitutionally.

On 15 May 2025 the government appointed him chairman of the Supervisory Board of the public enterprise “Srbijagas”. In June 2025, according to a statement from his office, he was elected chairman of the board of the Russian Historical Society’s branch in Serbia.

In May 2026 he attended the Victory Day parade in Moscow. In January 2026 he said he would accept Serbia leaving the Council of Europe if the reintroduction of the death penalty were the reason.

At the “Serbian World” rally on 5 October 2026 he called on supporters to vote on 25 October in the early parliamentary elections for the list “Aleksandar Vučić – United Serbia” and announced that he would run for president of Serbia in the presidential elections expected in December. In the elections, according to preliminary results from the Republic Electoral Commission, the Student List won 52.71 percent of the vote and 140 seats, while the “United Serbia” list won 39.17 percent and 104 seats, which Vučić acknowledged. The sources checked for this text contain no confirmation that Vulin’s candidacy has been formally submitted.

Literary Work

Besides his political career, Vulin has also been active as a writer. He published the political study “Polit art – politika i kako je prepoznati” (2002), followed by three novels: “Opadanje” (2004), “Lepota” (2008) and “Mrak” (2010).

According to some media assessments, he did not achieve wider recognition as a writer, and the public has known him primarily as a politician.

Greatest Achievements

Aleksandar Vulin’s greatest political achievement is his longevity in state institutions. From 2012 to 2023 he held senior posts without interruption in governments led by Ivica Dačić, Aleksandar Vučić and Ana Brnabić, and in 2024 he returned to the government of Miloš Vučević.

The Movement of Socialists, a small party he founded in 2008, had members of parliament through coalitions with the Progressives for more than a decade. Vulin remained one of the most influential ministers in public life regardless of the size of the party he led.

As interior minister he emphasised results in the fight against organised crime, especially the dismantling of the Belivuk–Miljković clan, which the government used as an argument for appointing him to head the BIA. Such claims, like assessments of his work in general, remain a matter of political division.

Private Life

Aleksandar Vulin is married to Nataša Vulin, with whom he has a son. Family details are known mostly from media reports and from documents of the competent institutions that were cited in the case of the apartment purchase.

He has a younger brother, Bojan. His parents, according to media reports, come from Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Vulin has repeatedly stressed his connection with Republika Srpska.

He has appeared at sporting events and in boxing clubs, and in 2021 the Hunting Association of Serbia awarded him a gold plaque for contributing to the protection of nature and wildlife.

Controversy Over the Apartment

The so-called “aunt from Canada” affair is particularly well known to the public. According to an investigation by the portal KRIK, in July 2012 Vulin and his wife bought a three-room apartment in the Zvezdara district of Belgrade for 229,620 euros, at a time when his monthly pay as an official was considerably lower.

Vulin explained that the money for the apartment had been borrowed by his wife from her aunt in Canada. The Anti-Corruption Agency doubted the authenticity of the evidence submitted, but the prosecution concluded that his wife, Nataša Vulin, had borrowed 205,000 euros from her aunt, which is legally permitted, and that there were no indications the money had been obtained through a criminal offence.

The case remained one of the most frequently cited topics about Vulin, and his explanations were criticised by the opposition and the media. Vulin rejected all accusations of illegally acquiring property.

Interesting Facts

• He joined SK-PJ at the age of eighteen, and in JUL he was one of its founders.
• He is the author of four books: one political study and three novels.
• In March 2019 he spent fifteen days in barracks, which he described as voluntary military service.
• The Hunting Association of Serbia awarded him a gold plaque in 2021.
• He has been a member of governments led by Ivica Dačić, Aleksandar Vučić, Ana Brnabić and Miloš Vučević.
• Some media have called him a “man of Moscow”, which he rejects.

Awards and Honours

Aleksandar Vulin has received several decorations in Serbia, Republika Srpska and Russia:

• The Order of Saint Sava of the First Degree, awarded by Serbian Patriarch Irinej to the Office for Kosovo and Metohija and to Vulin as its director.
• The Order of the Flag of Republika Srpska with a golden wreath (2020).
• The gold plaque of the Hunting Association of Serbia (2021).
• Two decorations from Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu.
• The Order of Friendship of the Russian Federation, awarded by Vladimir Putin (2024).
• A decoration from the Russian Federal Security Service (2024).

Legacy and Influence

Aleksandar Vulin is one of the most polarising figures in contemporary Serbian politics. For one part of the public he is a consistent advocate of Serbian interests and an independent foreign policy, while others see him as a symbol of a pro-Russian course and of conflict with the West and with neighbours.

His most lasting contribution to political vocabulary is the term “Serbian World”, which moved from ideological circles into state discourse and sparked debate across the region. His role in Serbia’s foreign policy, especially in relations with Russia, the United States and the European Union, has been the subject of analysis and criticism.

The assessment of Vulin’s legacy remains divided. It will be judged through the outcome of the latest political changes in Serbia, as well as through the final fate of the candidacy he has announced.