The company Viaduct from Portorož, which collected more than 56 million euros from Bosnia and Herzegovina last year after an arbitration dispute, has in the meantime, according to reports, been sold to a new owner for only one million euros. The question arises as to who is behind this transaction and where the public money from the budget of Bosnia and Herzegovina ends up.
New owner and suspicions about business
Slovenian investigative journalist from the portal Necenzuridano.si Primož Cirman has published new details of the “Viaduct” affair. The company from Portorož, which previously received multi-million euro compensation from Bosnia and Herzegovina, has changed owners, and according to his claims, a Macedonian citizen is behind the new structure.
“This is a Macedonian citizen, Krsto Blaževski, who is one of the largest tax debtors in Slovenia. His companies are practically closed down and owe several million euros to the Slovenian state. According to available information, he paid one million euros to buy Viaduct from an unknown source, and from his previous business it is clear that he could try to shut down the company,” Cirman said.
Concession and arbitration dispute
In 2013, the authorities in Banja Luka unilaterally terminated the concession for the construction of a hydroelectric power plant on the Vrbas River, worth 165 million euros. The company received that concession back in 2004, although it practically did not operate before that. This story was followed by other Slovenian journalists.
“I cannot get rid of the impression that it is a kind of mafia business model, that is, a model that could be attributed to organized crime that operates through state structures. The story with the thermal power plant and the coal mine left a similar impression. With the claims that were constantly piling up, there was no visible intention to remedy the situation,” said Novica Mihajlović, a journalist from the newspaper Delo.
Expanding business connections
Over the past year, the portal Necenzurirano.si has published a series of investigative stories in which tycoons and businessmen from the RS are buying companies and real estate, most often in the area of Ljubljana, as well as the Slovenian coast. The villa in Portorož also attracted special attention.
Primož Cirman states that certain properties and assets are connected to circles close to the family of Milorad Dodik.
“Last year, in essence, they established that people who are practically very closely connected to the Dodik family, more precisely with Igor Dodik, or Milorad Dodik’s son, own at least one villa, and probably some other properties. Information is also coming in all the time that certain people from RS also had yachts in Slovenia,” said Cirman.
Political reactions in Slovenia
In September last year, the government of Robert Golob imposed a ban on Milorad Dodik from entering the country, to which the former president of Republika Srpska reacted sharply, calling on voters in Slovenia to vote for Janez Janša, doing him a favor.
“The favors are here to be returned. We’ll see how the two of them will settle this between themselves, but I don’t expect any unpleasantness from the new government,” says Mihajlović.
Possible continuation of the affair
And the continuation of the “Viaduct” affair could still stand in the way of returning the favors, claims the representative of the IFIMES organization Zijad Bećirović.
“The new government of the Republic of Slovenia could face pressure not to relax relations with Milorad Dodik, regardless of political contacts, and even to tighten them through investigations into the origin of the assets of his network, which according to estimates has a capital of around three billion,” said Zijad Bećirović.
Harsh politics and condemnations from this part of Europe for Milorad Dodik’s political moves could thus become part of the past and fall into oblivion in the coming period, as could the company Viadukt with its original address in Portorož, whose former owners are not available to the public for comment.
