Conspiracy, ultranationalism… the troubled links of Novak Djokovic

ATfter a defeat in the final of the US Open last September and a grueling end to the season, Novak Djokovic returned to Serbia to recharge his batteries. But during his vacation, a public appearance, in the company of a sulphurous character, a former paramilitary leader, had above all highlighted his close ties with the most radical Serbian extremists and his ambiguity on historical questions.

The man in question is called Milan Jolovic. In the 1990s, he was the commander of the Wolves of the Drina, a shock unit of the Bosnian Serb secessionist army, particularly involved in the massacres committed in Srebrenica against Bosnian Muslims in 1995. Jolovic, nicknamed “Legenda” , is for many Serbian nationalists a patriotic hero, known…