The controversial Serbian billionaire Dragan Šolak and his partners are trying everything at their disposal to bring back his market failure and the inability to repay his company's excessive debt, amounting to billions of euros, to the political arena and pass himself off as a political victim of the Serbian state.
In order to hide the fact that he wants to take away hundreds of millions of euros from the citizens of our country in an arbitration case against Serbia in Washington, which we have recently reported on, United Group's owner has activated his well-oiled mechanism, which he used to use to destroy his competition, and now he uses it for the most part as the last line of defence and for catching at straws.
However, he is having more and more difficulties as a great many citizens who placed their trust in his media outlets have seen through him, as have his former allies among the countries and non-governmental organizations from the West, to which he had initially managed to "sell the story" of him being a fighter for democracy, and not what he really is – a businessman without any scruples. In addition, an increasing number of his partners, associates, and media workers, both past and present, are dissociating themselves from him, according to our United Group source with knowledge of the situation. Manoeuvring to get in on Serbia's budget
Aware that his cowboy business in Serbia, which has gotten him nearly 1.5 billion euros in personal wealth, is on its deathbed, Dragan Šolak is trying to carry out a manoeuvre to get in on Serbia's budget by means of a legal action worth almost 600 million euros, in the hope that he would get rid of at least a portion of the debt burdening him more and more, and so stay in the game hoping to be saved in the political arena.
According to our source, this is precisely why the owner of United Group is attempting to win over any disgruntled yet corruptible official from Serbia's state and regulatory bodies for his own purposes. With their help and by falsely passing himself off as a political victim, he would get his hands on the Serbian citizens' money and so weather the difficult period that lies ahead for his company.
Šolak's and his company's position is further complicated by the fact that his whole model, which was based on lining up private pockets under the guise of fighting for democracy and media freedom, has for some time now been fully exposed for what it is, which is why many of his former allies from abroad have already turned their backs on him. There is even more and more mention of increasingly serious legal problems in the EU states and countries where his companies are registered.
Faced with such circumstances, United Group's owner is attempting to renew the story of himself as the last fighter for democracy and public interest, in order to gain new support in the powerful foreign political and financial circles. In parallel with these attempts, which involve large sums of black money intended for bribing and so-called lobbying, an operation run by Šolak's mechanism has been under way with the aim of additionally frightening the citizens of our country amid a looming international political and financial crisis, and pointing the finger of blame at the institutions of the state and its main competitor – Telekom Srbija.
Telekom at its historical maximum
Despite the fact that in only a few years Telekom Srbija went from a company barely surviving in the market dominated by Šolak's SBB to the number one player in all four key areas of the telecommunications and television provision and distribution industry, Šolak's mechanism has for weeks been trying to terrify the citizens of Serbia by the results of its biggest competitor, filtered through fake news. To this end, the media outlets owned by United Group, together with the representatives of the mechanism's political wing and supporting organizations and individuals, have been attempting in an almost orchestrated manner to spread panic about Telekom's "huge debt", which will allegedly have to be paid off by the citizens of our country.
For example, the case of large investments made by Arena Sport, a company operating under the ownership of Telekom, has served as an argument for Šolak's media to accuse this company and Telekom's management of deliberate and unjustified incurring of debts which, according to this disinformation, will need to be repaid by the citizens of Serbia. This claim by the Danas daily, which is directly owned by Šolak's United Media, was picked up by other media outlets in Šolak's ownership. Further contributions were made by the standard members of the mechanism which are not directly owned by Šolak, above all the NIN weekly.
The weekly magazine in question has found in Telekom one of three time-bombs posing a threat to the Serbian financial system. The Croatian daily Jutarnji List is involved in the game as well, as it called Telekom's investments a blow against the pockets of Serbia's citizens, carried out because of "Vučić's showdown with his most vocal critic." All this is being done even though the general public – and even more so the professional public – knows well that Telekom's value is at its historical maximum.
It is clear, however, to both the domestic and the international public, that what lies behind the campaign mounted by Šolak's media is not the concern of this controversial billionaire for the public interest and the interests of the citizens of Serbia, but solely the effort to increase his personal wealth and continue the fraudulent games that have so far brought him untold riches. An any rate, all serious expert analyses testify to this, as they point out that Telekom's EBITDA, as the principal economic indicator of a company's market prospects, is far beyond Šolak's United Group as its main competitor. This fact can hardly be neutralized by either Šolak or any of his media and political officials.
What is Šolak's mechanism
The mechanism to protect the interests of Dragan Šolak was set up in order to attack and launch dirty campaigns against anyone who stands in the way of United Group's owner. The mechanism consists of the media directly owned by United Media, Dragan Đilas's political party, and the media that this group controls by selling advertising space – the Direktno.rs portal and the NIN and Vreme weeklies. The so-called investigative media and non-governmental organizations have a special role in this mechanism, as they are the reserve creators of content which launches scandals and criminalizes specific targets in advance.
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