In the blue corner, the challenger: a privately-owned media conglomerate whose rags-to-riches founder has gone from small town poor boy to billionaire English Premier League Soccer club magnate and Serbia’s richest man – and become the chief sponsor of the country’s political opposition.
In the red corner, the titleholder: a state-owned established cable, TV, and telecommunications giant and the largest company in Serbia and the Balkans, owning further businesses across the region - and turning big profits for the taxpayer and a conservative Serbian government.
A straightforward story of David vs. Goliath, and of west vs. east – or so it would appear. But as with much in the Balkans, all is not as it first seems. This matters, for America and her allies may be in danger of favoring the wrong contestant. In the battle for the Balkans – where Russian interference is growing and support for EU membership is in steep decline across all western Balkan nations not already in the club – it is crucial to understand who stands behind the important sources and suppliers of information to the public.
United Media, the challenger and its founder certainly came from small beginnings. In the “wild-west” Balkan post- Communist years, many exotic figures rose to riches and in curious ways – becoming fabulously wealthy tycoons. Most however, like their Russian oligarch brothers, stayed out of politics.
The exception is Dragan Solak, United’s founder, who has used his media assets across the region combined with his immense wealth to support opposition parties and influence politics across the Balkans, but above all in his native Serbia. Pumping out pro-opposition news 24 hours a day on his N1 TV News channel aired on his own SBB cable network - blocking voices from the democratically elected administration while providing maximum coverage to all and every civil society group with a grievance against it no matter how small, is the name of the game.
Certainly, without Solak’s supportive media and financial largesse it is doubtful the opposition would have scored even the paltry 14 per cent of the vote they mustered earlier this year at Serbia’s General Election.
But owning western businesses, even western-facing media, does not make for the same of its owner. There’s a well-trod path of Russian oligarchs owning English premier league football clubs. There’s even a former KGB officer who owns one of Britain’s leading national newspapers. The location of their soccer team or the fact they pump out pro-western messages through their press assets does not make them any less Putin’s men.
Indeed, with Solak, the content of his news network stands at odds with contractions and eastern connections that run through his business affairs. When acquiring a media company owned by the leader of the opposition in Serbia who claims he has only met Solak once – yet who Solak claims is a friend – he reportedly sent money from the British Virgin Islands to former Bulgarian Communist Secret Police agent Krasimir Gergov to make the formal purchase. Funds were apparently also transferred to Gergov from Switzerland by lawyer Wolfram Kuoni, board director of United’s subsidiary in Zurich. Kuoni’s Russian connections are hard to conceal: formerly Vice- chairman of Gazprombank (staying on for over a month after the Ukraine invasion) he was also a director of Ferrexpo – a company owned by Kostyantyn Zhevago, a Russian-born eastern Ukrainian businessman on the Zelensky government’s Interpol wanted list for money laundering and embezzlement.
Such associations hardly sit easy for someone supposedly western leaning. But then neither do his “pro-democracy” attacks on Telekom Srbija stack up. The company is in business with Vodafone – the largest western mobile network operator in the world, with the British telecommunications giant global knowledge and experience as well as procurement capabilities. This partnership has assisted the Serbian company secure additional support from the European Investment Bank to develop 5G infrastructure and, without guarantees. The company’s CEO Vladimir Lucichas risen through the ranks, serving at the company for more than two decades – at the same time Serbia has been run by 12 different elected governments, all under different political persuasions.
Yet this has not stopped Solak’s media calling for Telekom Serbia and its CEO to be sanctioned along with Andrej Vucic, brother of the current president of Serbia (the latter holding no obvious reason to be in Solak’s line of fire other than to cause a mess for the elected president).
Truthfully, Solak’s businesses are simply under competitive pressure. Last year, United Group lost the broadcast rights to the English Premier League Soccer across the Balkans, outbid by its rival. This is surely a personal embarrassment to Solak when coming just as he bought his own Premier League Soccer team in southern England. At the same time United Group is swimming in 4.76 billion EUR ($4.86 billion USD) of debt – up from only 1.1 billion EUR ($1.2 million USD) last year, with operating income at minus 50.6 million EUR ($52 million USD) and in the red for several years running.
Perhaps western powers should take Solak at his word when he claims he has no role shaping the editorial stance of his news networks. If so, it’s just an enormous coincidence their output seems targeted to help him and his businesses and the candidates he supports politically.
But what is no more convincing is that with the business connections he keeps Solak is a true friend of the west – any more than are those Russian media and sports aficionados he now rubs shoulders with as a soccer club owner in the English Premier League.