Minister's Education Background: Where Did Milica Đurđević Stamenkovski Graduate?

For the first time since she entered politics, Milica Đurđević Stamenkovski did not appear as an opposition MP in Serbia’s National Assembly at the beginning of May. In the parliamentary elections held in December 2023, her party Oathkeepers (Zavetnici) did not pass the election threshold, despite being in coalition with the Dveri movement. Nevertheless, Đurđević Stamenkovski managed to become an MP, this time as a candidate for Minister of Family Care and Demography.

Her biography, which was sent to MPs along with those of other proposed ministers, states that after graduating from the First Belgrade Gymnasium, she enrolled at the Faculty of Political Sciences, where she obtained a degree in political science. For years, this information has also been listed on her personal website, and was also included on the Ministry’s website after she was appointed minister.

However, despite enrolling at the Faculty of Political Sciences in Belgrade after high school, Đurđević Stamenkovski never completed her studies, the Center for Investigative Journalism of Serbia (CINS) can reveal.

She lost her student status at the Faculty back in 2020.

Response from the Faculty of Political Sciences in Belgrade

Despite this, her name continued to appear on election lists with the title of “political scientist” in the following years.

Former Minister of Education Srđan Verbić told CINS that no one in the Government checks biographies or requires proof of educational background when one becomes minister.

“I did provide it, as I thought it was necessary, but no one asked me for it.”

However, Zoran Stojiljković, a sociologist and retired Faculty of Political Sciences professor, believes that members of the executive branch should be obliged to provide proof of their educational qualifications upon taking office.

“In normal societies, they [ministers] must be accountable to the public, and therefore, citizens should be provided with information about their educational background, among other things.”

The Russian Institute

In her statement to CINS, Minister Đurđević Stamenkovski says that she obtained her degree this year – from the Russian Institute of Diaspora and Integration. She did not provide evidence of this because, as she says, she submitted documentation for enrollment in a master’s program at the Russian State Social University.

She declined to answer CINS’s other questions, including why she chose this Institute, how she enrolled there, and which study program she completed, instead telling us to put these questions to the Institute itself.

According to the information on their website, the Institute of Diaspora and Integration was established in 1996 and received a license in 2019 from the Moscow Department of Education for providing additional education for children and adults, as well as further professional education.

License for Providing Education from the Moscow Department of Education; Source: i-sng.ru

According to the website, the Institute offers courses in political science, lasting from 36 to 72 hours.

In its response to CINS, the Institute of Diaspora and Integration says that “Milica Đurđević Stamenkovski underwent training at the Institute of CIS States (Institute of Diaspora and Integration) from 2020 to 2024, specializing in political science. The program lasted 260 academic hours and was carried out in Russian, taking into account the specifics for foreign students.”

However, the Institute did not answer questions about whether the diploma obtained in this way is equivalent to a bachelor’s degree, or if they recognized the exams she had passed at the Faculty of Political Sciences in Belgrade.

Response from the Institute of Diaspora and Integration

Serbia’s Qualifications Agency did not respond to CINS’s question about whether a degree obtained from this Institute would be recognized in Serbia.

The initiative to establish this Institute came from Konstantin Fyodorovich Zatulin, a politician and member of Vladimir Putin’s United Russia. He holds the position of Special Representative for Migration and Citizenship Issues in the State Duma and is also involved in matters related to the former Soviet Union states and Eurasian integration.

Founders of the Institute include, among others, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, the Sputnik joint stock company, institutes of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and the Lomonosov Moscow State University.

Its goal is, among other things, to monitor and study the conditions of the former Soviet Union states, as well as to gather information about the status of Russians abroad and work on strengthening ties with the Russian diaspora.

The media in Serbia have written about Zatulin on several occasions during his visits to Belgrade. He attended Slobodan Milošević’s funeral and the fifth-anniversary commemoration of his death, as well as an event organized by the Serbian Radical Party while Vojislav Šešelj was still in The Hague. On that occasion, he stated that the Tribunal must be abolished because it represents a “disgrace to international law.”

In 2021, at the Moskva Hotel, the Institute opened its representative office in Belgrade called Russian Balkan Center. The opening was attended by Konstantin Zatulin, the then-President of Serbia’s National Assembly Ivica Dačić, and the former ambassador of Serbia to Moscow Slavenko Terzić, who is also the director of this Center.

As reported by Radio Television of Vojvodina, Zatulin pointed out on that occasion that Russia and Serbia do not share a common border, that the peoples of the two countries have never lived in one state, but that they have for centuries been bound by the same faith, similar worldviews, and “mutual, sometimes mystical love.”

In a statement to CINS, Slavenko Terzić says he knows nothing about the opportunities for additional education at the Institute, and that the Russian Balkan Center and the Institute cooperate on a scientific and cultural level.

 “We organize round tables or joint meetings, that’s mainly it.”

He also adds that their cooperation is negligible at the moment because the Center has no funds, as, he assumes, is the case with the Institute itself.

The Institute’s website regularly publishes news, including those about new laws on deporting migrants, the ongoing war in Ukraine, and relations with other countries. The Institute and the Russian Balkan Center also issued a joint statement in 2023 condemning the “Serbia Against Violence” protests, assessing that it was a campaign aimed at overthrowing Aleksandar Vučić and destabilizing Serbia.