Miroslav Lazanski (; 18 September 1950 – 3 August 2021) was а Serbian journalist, military analyst, politician, and a diplomat who served as ambassador of Serbia to the Russian Federation. Previous to his appointment, Lazanski was a Member of parliament. He wrote on political and military matters and was a correspondent and commentator for the Belgrade daily Politika. He was a member of the National Assembly of Serbia from 2016 to 2019 as member of the governing coalition led by the Serbian Progressive Party. Early life Born to a Karlovac-stationed Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) officer father of Slovene ethnicity with Polish origin Vladimir Lazanski (1919-2005) and a Serb mother Velinka Plavšić, Lazanski's paternal grandfather Mihael Lazanski (1896-1942) and uncle Miroslav "Mirko" Lazanski (1921-1942) were imprisoned and killed in the Ustashe-run Jasenovac concentration camp during World War II. During the war, his father—at the time a Royal Yugoslav Army officer—was held at Osnabrück as a prisoner of war. His father's best friend was Zoran Konstantinović (1920–2007). Young Lazanski began his primary education in the town of his birth, attending the Dragojla Jarnević Elementary School and completing five grades. Following Karlovac, his father's job took the family to Trebinje where Lazanski completed final three grades of primary school before enrolling at the Jovan Dučić Gymnasium. Upon graduating from the gymnasium, he enrolled at the University of Zagreb's Faculty of Law and graduated. His mandatory JNA military service stint took place in Bitola in 1977, in the JNA's 41st infantry division. Journalist career Vjesnik, Danas, and Start Lazanski's first jobs in journalism were for the Zagreb-based Vjesnik daily newspaper as well as and weekly news magazines. He reported from the scene of armed conflicts such as the Soviet–Afghan War, Iran–Iraq War, Lebanese Civil War, and Gulf War. Furthermore, he managed to obtain access to some of the leading global military figures of the period on both sides of the Cold War, including US Army general Bernard W. Rogers in October 1982 (who at the time performed the role of NATO's Supreme Allied Commander Europe) as well as Soviet Army general Sergey Akhromeyev in December 1982 who was about to become a Marshal. Other figures Lazanski interviewed included John Galvin, Warsaw Pact commander-in-chief Viktor Kulikov in 1986, Soviet Minister of Defense Dmitry Yazov in 1988, Soviet Navy commander-in-chief admiral Vladimir Chernavin, KGB chief general Vladimir Kryuchkov, Igor Radionov, Bennie L. Davis, Paul Sper, Crosbie