The president of the 7th Guards Brigade Veterans Association sent a powerful message from the celebration in Knin, where he found himself as a physical barrier between the Prime Minister and the President.
The president of the 7th Guards Brigade Veterans Association, Robert Puja, stated that veterans should not be equated "with any past regime." He delivered this message during the Victory Day ceremony in Knin, where he also drew attention with his physical position between the two highest state officials.
At the Operation Storm anniversary, Puja stood in the front row in front of the stage, positioned exactly between Prime Minister Andrej Plenković and President Zoran Milanović. In public discourse, this role was quickly dubbed the "buffer zone" between two warring political factions.
However, overshadowed by this discussion was his key message. Puja emphasized that he wants the role of his comrades to be valued solely through the truth about the Homeland War, without any association with past regimes.
Interestingly, such a message was not heard in the speeches of the Speaker of Parliament, the President, or the Government. This omission gains additional weight when considering what was happening just a few hundred meters away at the same time.
There, Marko Skejo and Dražen Keleminec were disgracing the Operation Storm celebration with Ustasha chants from World War II, creating a dual connotation that, as the newspaper notes, "took root well, until the next occasion."
