Nenad Popović ( sr-cyr, Ненад Поповић; born 30 September 1966) is a Serbian politician and businessman who served as

minister without portfolio A minister without portfolio is either a government minister with no specific responsibilities or a minister who does not head a particular ministry. The sinecure is particularly common in countries ruled by coalition governments and a cabinet w ...

from 2017 to 2022. A long-time member of the

Democratic Party of Serbia The New Democratic Party of Serbia ( sr, Нова демократска странка Србије, Nova demokratska stranka Srbije, , NDSS or New DSS) is a national-conservative political party in Serbia. Initially known and formed as Democ ...

(DSS), he left the party in 2014 and formed the Serbian People's Party (SNP).

Biography

Early years and education

Popović was born in

Tuzla Tuzla (, ) is the third-largest city of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the administrative center of Tuzla Canton of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. As of 2013, it has a population of 110,979 inhabitants. Tuzla is the economic, cultural, ed ...

Bosnia and Herzegovina Bosnia and Herzegovina ( sh, / , ), abbreviated BiH () or B&H, sometimes called Bosnia–Herzegovina and often known informally as Bosnia, is a country at the crossroads of south and southeast Europe, located in the Balkans. Bosnia and H ...

, on 30 September 1966, son of Nemanja Popović, university professor and academician of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences, and of Danica, professor of history. He graduated from the

University of Belgrade The University of Belgrade ( sr, / ) is a public university in Serbia. It is the oldest and largest modern university in Serbia. Founded in 1808 as the Belgrade Higher School in revolutionary Serbia, by 1838 it merged with the Kragujevac-b ...

Faculty of Machine Engineering. He finished his

Master's A master's degree (from Latin ) is an academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice.

and doctoral studies at

Moscow State University M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University (MSU; russian: Московский государственный университет имени М. В. Ломоносова) is a public research university in Moscow, Russia and the most prestigious ...

Faculty of Economics A faculty is a division within a university or college comprising one subject area or a group of related subject areas, possibly also delimited by level (e.g. undergraduate). In American usage such divisions are generally referred to as colleges ...

. He was a professor at the Faculty of Economy of Moscow's

Lomonosov University M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University (MSU; russian: Московский государственный университет имени М. В. Ломоносова) is a public research university in Moscow, Russia and the most prestigious ...

and the Faculty of Economics of the

Moscow State Mining University Moscow State Mining University (''Московский государственный горный университет'' in Russia) is a Russian institute of higher education that prepares mining engineers. History Its history can be traced b ...

Political career

From 2006 to 2008 he was the head of the economic team for

Kosovo and Metohija The Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija ( sr, Косово и Метохиja, Kosovo i Metohija; sq, Kosova dhe Metohija), commonly known as Kosovo and abbreviated to Kosmet or KiM, is an autonomous province defined by the constituti ...

. He led the development of the Strategy for Long-Term Economic Development of Serbian Communities in Kosovo and Metohija. At the same time, he was vice-president and later deputy chairman of the Coordination Body for the Presevo,

Bujanovac Bujanovac ( sr-cyr, Бујановац, ; sq, Bujanoc) is a town and municipality located in the Pčinja District of southern Serbia. Situated in the South Morava basin, it is located in the geographical area known as Preševo Valley. It is also ...

and Medvedja municipalities. Former deputy president of DSS, president of the DSS Economic Council and deputy in the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia. As Vice-President of the

National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia The National Assembly ( sr-cyr, Народна скупштина, Narodna skupština, ) is the Unicameralism, unicameral legislature of Serbia. The assembly is composed of 250 Deputy (legislator), deputies who are Proportional representation, pr ...

, he was one of the main observers of the electoral process in a

referendum A referendum (plural: referendums or less commonly referenda) is a direct vote by the electorate on a proposal, law, or political issue. This is in contrast to an issue being voted on by a representative. This may result in the adoption of a ...

annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation In February and March 2014, Russia invaded and subsequently annexed the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine. This event took place in the aftermath of the Revolution of Dignity and is part of the wider Russo-Ukrainian War. The events in Kyiv th ...

. His name was mentioned in the

Paradise Papers The Paradise Papers are a set of over 13.4 million confidential electronic documents relating to offshore investments that were leaked to the German reporters Frederik Obermaier and Bastian Obermayer, from the newspaper'' Süddeutsch ...

in connection to owning several off-shore companies. Value of his business undertakings reaches 100 million dollars, making him officially the richest Serbian politician. On 29 June 2017, he was named the

Minister without portfolio A minister without portfolio is either a government minister with no specific responsibilities or a minister who does not head a particular ministry. The sinecure is particularly common in countries ruled by coalition governments and a cabinet w ...

in the

Government of Serbia The Government of Serbia ( sr, Влада Србије, Vlada Srbije), formally the Government of the Republic of Serbia ( sr, Влада Републике Србије, Vlada Republike Srbije), commonly abbreviated to Serbian Government ( sr, � ...

in the charge of the innovations and technological development. On 3 July 2017, Aleksandr Chepurin, Russian Federation Ambassador to Serbia, made a first official visit to Popović after being sworn as minister. In July 2019 Popovic stated that "there was no

genocide Genocide is the intentional destruction of a people—usually defined as an ethnic, national, racial, or religious group—in whole or in part. Raphael Lemkin coined the term in 1944, combining the Greek word (, "race, people") with the Latin ...

Srebrenica Srebrenica ( sr-cyrl, Сребреница, ) is a town and municipality located in the easternmost part of Republika Srpska, an entity of Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is a small mountain town, with its main industry being Salt mine, salt mining a ...

and Serbs will never accept to be stamped as genocidal people." He said Serbia should rethink its goal of becoming a European Union member because of such claims.

Other businesses

Popović is the owner and president of the international company ABS Electro which employs over three thousand people, engaged in the production of electrical-technical equipment, creating advanced engineering solutions for a variety of industries such as

electrical power Electric power is the rate at which electrical energy is transferred by an electric circuit. The SI unit of power is the watt, one joule per second. Standard prefixes apply to watts as with other SI units: thousands, millions and billions of ...

shipbuilding Shipbuilding is the construction of ships and other floating vessels. It normally takes place in a specialized facility known as a shipyard. Shipbuilders, also called shipwrights, follow a specialized occupation that traces its roots to befor ...

oil An oil is any nonpolar chemical substance that is composed primarily of hydrocarbons and is hydrophobic (does not mix with water) & lipophilic (mixes with other oils). Oils are usually flammable and surface active. Most oils are unsaturated ...

gas Gas is one of the four fundamental states of matter (the others being solid, liquid, and plasma). A pure gas may be made up of individual atoms (e.g. a noble gas like neon), elemental molecules made from one type of atom (e.g. oxygen), or ...

metal A metal (from Greek μέταλλον ''métallon'', "mine, quarry, metal") is a material that, when freshly prepared, polished, or fractured, shows a lustrous appearance, and conducts electricity and heat relatively well. Metals are typicall ...

mining Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the Earth, usually from an ore body, lode, vein, seam, reef, or placer deposit. The exploitation of these deposits for raw material is based on the economic via ...

, and others. He is the president of the Foundation "Russian Necropolises" from Belgrade, which was responsible for the project of reconstruction of the complex of memorial monuments Russian necropolises in the New Cemetery in Belgrade. Popović is also member of the Board of the International Fun of Unity of Orthodox Nations.

Awards and honors

* Medal of Holy Sergey Radoniesky, for exceptional contribution to the development and straightening of relations among

Eastern Orthodox Eastern Orthodoxy, also known as Eastern Orthodox Christianity, is one of the three main branches of Chalcedonian Christianity, alongside Catholicism and Protestantism. Like the Pentarchy of the first millennium, the mainstream (or "canonical") ...

Christian nations, awarded by the

Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia The Patriarch of Moscow and all Rus' (russian: Патриарх Московский и всея Руси, translit=Patriarkh Moskovskij i vseja Rusi), also known as the Patriarch of Moscow and all Russia, is the official title of the Bishop of Mo ...

* Medal of Holy Daniel of Moscow, for the spiritual renaissance of Russia, awarded by the Patriarch of Moscow and all Russia * Medal of Humanity Award of the State Union Serbia and Montenegro for

humanitarian Humanitarianism is an active belief in the value of human life, whereby humans practice benevolent treatment and provide assistance to other humans to reduce suffering and improve the conditions of humanity for moral, altruistic, and emotional ...

work and exceptional contribution and help to the Serb population in Kosovo and Metohija *

Order of Friendship The Order of Friendship (russian: Орден Дружбы, ') is a state decoration of the Russian Federation established by Boris Yeltsin by presidential decree 442 of 2 March 1994 to reward Russian and foreign nationals whose work, deeds a ...

, for special contribution to the development of economic and social relationships between Serbia and Russia, awarded by the

President of the Russian Federation The president of the Russian Federation ( rus, Президент Российской Федерации, Prezident Rossiyskoy Federatsii) is the head of state of the Russian Federation. The president leads the executive branch of the federal ...

; * Order of the Saint Sava of the Second Grade, for the renewal and strengthening of faith and the

Serbian Orthodox Church The Serbian Orthodox Church ( sr-Cyrl, Српска православна црква, Srpska pravoslavna crkva) is one of the autocephalous (ecclesiastically independent) Eastern Orthodox Christian denomination, Christian churches. The majori ...

, awarded by the

Serbian Patriarch This article lists the heads of the Serbian Orthodox Church, since the establishment of the church as an autocephalous archbishopric in 1219 to today's patriarchate. The list includes all the archbishops and patriarchs that led the Serbian Ortho ...

* Order of the Venerable Seraphim of Sarov, for a special contribution to the revival of monasteries, churches, temples as well as church-social activism, awarded by the Patriarch of Moscow and all RussiaBiografija Nenada Popovića
SNP, pristupljeno: 22. januara 2015.

References

External links

29 June 2013 * {{DEFAULTSORT:Popovic, Nenad Living people 1966 births Politicians from Tuzla Serbs of Bosnia and Herzegovina University of Belgrade Faculty of Mechanical Engineering alumni Moscow State University alumni Academic staff of Moscow State University Democratic Party of Serbia politicians Serbian People's Party (2014) politicians Serbian businesspeople Serbian sports executives and administrators FK Partizan presidents Government ministers of Serbia People named in the Paradise Papers