Albanians expelled Filipov as opposed NATO, Russia takes him to Bosnia

Albanians expel him after the Scripal case. The Russian Federation has officially nominated Filippovin as a new military attaché in BiH.

The Russian Federation intends to send Vladislav Vitalyevic Filippov as military attaché to its embassy in Sarajevo. Filipov is a diplomat who was expelled from Albania in March last year after the Scripal case, Zhurnal understands.

Russia has officially announced the Bosnian authorities' purpose in July this year, when it called for approval to appoint Filippolov to the post of military attaché and aviation at the Russian Embassy in BiH.

Filippov holds the colonel's rank in the Russian Federation Army.

According to Russian agency Sputnjik, it was one of two Russian diplomats expelled from Albania in March last year following the “case. Scribal”

The Albanian Foreign Ministry has called for an interview with Russian Ambassador Alexander Carpus. We have informed him that two Russian diplomats should be expelled from Albania because their actions do not comply with their diplomatic statute”, said a press release by the Albanian Foreign Ministry, published March 26th 2018.

Scripal case

Russian media have reported that, besides Filippov, the first secretary of the Russian Embassy, Alexei Balasov, had been expelled from Albania.

Both have turned out to be linked to the Russian military intelligence service GRU, whose operators are responsible for poisoning former Russian intelligence officer Sergei Scripal and his daughter Julia. Scribals were poisoned in the English town of Salisbury, followed by the expulsion of a large number of Russian diplomats from NATO member states. In response to the Scripal case, Albania has expelled Filippovin and Balasov.

Vladislav Vitalyevich Filippov is a longtime Russian Army officer.

He began his military career in 1995 and served as deputy commander of a paramilitary regiment in Russia's Northern Caucasus District.

From 2009 to 2012, he was assistant to military attaché at the Embassy of the Russian Federation in Northern Macedonia, and in 2014 he was “transfered” at the Embassy in Tirana.

Albanian security agencies discovered that Filippov often traveled to Bulgaria, and there he had contacts with other Russian intelligence agents.

Just Wednesday, Bulgarian authorities announced that an outgoing military “atheu at the Russian Embassy in Sofia was refused visas. ”

Bulgaria's Foreign Ministry expelled another Russian diplomat the day before for involvement in spying.

Both Russian diplomats expelled from Bulgaria had contacts with Filippovin before he was officially expelled from Albania.

Acting in Northern Macedonia

After the expulsion, Vladislav Filippov was deputy chairman of the Department for Military-Political Labor Organisation in the Russian Army.

He's been honoured several times for his actions. During his commitment <x0-diplomatic” in northern Macedonia, Filippov backed then pro-rus V power MRO DPMNE and former Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski, who opposed NATO membership in his country. Filippov returned to Russia for a while, after which he moved to Tirana from where he was deported.

Considering this was a “diplomat” that was already against NATO, the Russian Federation, decided to send Filippolov on a mission to BiH. Bosnian authorities have not yet made a final decision for him.

We remember that last fall Goran Zivljevic, a multi-year-old Serbian BIA official, was appointed to the Serbian Embassy in BiH. Zivaljevic had earlier been expelled from Macedonia, where, as a spy “dirm”, he was involved in organising the attack on Macedonia's current pro-Western prime minister Zoran Zaev in Sobran.

The Macedonian service later declared that Zivljevic had promoted Gruevski's pro-Russian policy, and that he had fought against northern Macedonia's NATO accession. Zivaljevic also, according to Zrnali's information, had contacts with Russian intelligence co-ordinated by Vladislav Filippov. / RTK/