Miroslav Lazanski

Miroslav Lazanski (; 18 September 1950 – 3 August 2021 ) was а Serbian journalist, military analyst, politician, and a diplomat who served as ambassador of Serbia to the Russian Federation. Previous to his appointment, Lazanski was a Member of parliament. He wrote on political and military matters and was a correspondent and commentator for the Belgrade daily Politika. He was a member of the National Assembly of Serbia from 2016 to 2019 as member of the governing coalition led by the Serbian Progressive Party.

Early life Born to a Karlovac-stationed Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) officer father of Slovene ethnicity Vladimir Lazanski (1919-2005) and a Serb mother Velinka Živković, Lazanski's paternal grandfather Mihael Lazanski (1896-1942) and uncle Miroslav "Mirko" Lazanski (1921-1942) were imprisoned and killed in the Ustashe-run Jasenovac concentration camp during World War II. During the war, his father—at the time a Royal Yugoslav Army officer—was held at Osnabrück as a prisoner of war.

He reported from the scene of armed conflicts such as the Soviet–Afghan War, Iran–Iraq War, Lebanese Civil War, and Gulf War. Furthermore, he managed to obtain access to some of the leading global military figures of the period on both sides of the Cold War, including US Army general Bernard W. Rogers in October 1982 (who at the time performed the role of NATO's Supreme Allied Commander Europe) as well as Soviet Army general Sergey Akhromeyev in December 1982 who was about to become a Marshal.

Other figures Lazanski interviewed included John Galvin, Warsaw Pact commander-in-chief Viktor Kulikov in 1986, Soviet Minister of Defense Dmitry Yazov in 1988, Soviet Navy commander-in-chief admiral Vladimir Chernavin, KGB chief general Vladimir Kryuchkov, Igor Radionov, Bennie L. Davis, Paul Sper, Crosbie E. Saint, Huntington Hardisty, Sir John Woodward, James Alan Abrahamson, Johan Jørgen Holst, Ferenc Kárpáti, Vasile Milea, Dobri Dzhurov, Afghani minister of defense Shahnawaz Tanai, Maher Abdul Rashid, Helmut Willmann, Guido Venturoni, Joe Modise, Georg Meiring, etc.

While writing for different Balkan publications, Lazanski's articles were also published in the Greek newspaper Kathimerini and the Japanese newspapers Diamond Weekly and Securitarian.

Speaking in September 2014 about his methods of access to military officials on both sides of the Cold War, Lazanski said:

Politika In February 1991, Lazanski took an offer from Politika to become their commentator and moved to Belgrade. He remained at the job until fall 1995.

He reported from the Yugoslav Wars (including the Ten-Day War, Croatian War, Bosnian War and Kosovo War) as well as the First Chechen War, Libyan Civil War, and annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation. In 2016, Lazanski interviewed commander-in-chief of the Syrian Armed Forces, Bashar al-Assad. He was the only foreign reporter in North Korea during the 2018 February military parade held in honor of Military Foundation Day. He has also authored several books.

Views Regarding NATO exercises in the Baltic, Lazanski believed it to be part of an "anti-Russian hysteria" in the creation in the West, and that claims that Russia holds aggressive military plans for the Baltic, and at the same time NATO does not have these for Eastern Europe, is false.

Television Lazanski was interviewed in Boris Malagurski's documentary film The Weight of Chains 2 (2014). He has guested on RTS's Upitnik, Oko, Srbija na vezi, Tako stoji stvari, TV lica, B92's Kažiprst, RTRS's Terorizam, svijet u strahu!, RTV Pink's Jutarnji program, Dobro Jutro, Emisija Pravac, Teška reč, and HRT's Otvoreno. He was a frequent guest on TV Happy's popular show Ćirilica ("Cyrillic") hosted by Milomir Marić. Lazanski was the host of Lazanski direktno on RTRS. He has authored two documentary films, Rat za Kosovo (War for Kosovo ) and Komandosi (Commandoes), and fronted several more.

Politics

On 4 March 2016, it was confirmed that he was a member of the electoral list of ministers to the National Assembly of Serbia as member of a group of independents in the coalition led by Aleksandar Vučić and the Serbian Progressive Party. Lazanski became a member of the Board on Defense and Internal Affairs, as chosen by the National Assembly by 22 June 2016. He resigned from the assembly on 25 September 2019 after being appointed Serbia's ambassador to Russia.

Personal life Lazanski is related to former president of Republika Srpska Biljana Plavšić, his maternal grandmother and Plavšić's father being siblings (Lazanski's mother and Plavšić are cousins).

Lazanski's spouse was from Belgrade and they had a son.

Death On 3 August 2021, Lazanski died of a heart attack in his home in Belgrade at the age of 70.

Honours

Work Books Jutarnja patrola [Morning Patrol] (1999) Uvek postoji sutra [There is Always Tomorrow] (2000) Bin Laden protiv Amerike [Bin Laden Against America] (2001) Istina o Srpskoj [Truth about Srpska] (2001) Komandosi [Commandos] (2002) Borbeni avioni [Fighter Planes] (2002) Hitler je pobedio [Hitler Won] (2003) Vreme izdaje [Time of Betrayal] (2008)

Films Jugoslovenska narodna armija [Yugoslav People's Army], documentary Rat za Kosmet/Rat za Kosovo [War for Kosovo], documentary Komandosi [Commandos], documentary Titova soba tajni [Tito's Secret Room] (2014), documentary, director Dnevnik iz Sirije [Diary from Syria] (2015), documentary