/ world today news/ And what is the role of Russia here?
The second round of the presidential elections in Montenegro ended with the victory of Yakov Milatovic, who will become the head of state with a five-year term. Few people consider this a sensation, but during the election campaign many interesting things were discovered.
Outgoing President Milo Djukanovic (he remains in office until May 20) is a heavyweight in the local political arena. He is 61 years old, entered the political elite already in the SFRY: as the son of a prominent party functionary of Yugoslavia, at the age of 27, Milo became a member of the Central Committee of the Republican Communist Party – Union of Communists of Montenegro (UCCh). This party was continuously in power until 2020, although it was renamed the Democratic Party of Socialists of Montenegro.
Djukanovic was the first president of Montenegro when the country was part of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, he subsequently served five times as prime minister and twice as president. The opposition calls him a dictator and the godfather of the mafia over corruption allegations linked to the organized crime group, but Brussels and Washington rely on him, surrounding him with advisers, pundits and other watchful political scientists.
As a result, this ex-communist ensured the dissolution of the Union of Serbia and Montenegro in 2006 (i.e. the final abolition of Yugoslavia), and in 2017, the entry into NATO.
Djukanovic went to the current elections with the same slogans: to bring the country to the European Union (the republic received candidate status in 2010, accession negotiations have been dragging on since 2012) and thus ensure economic development and an increase in living standards .
At the same time, he built an anti-Serbian and anti-Russian rhetoric, openly declaring that the “Serbian world” was the same threat as the “Russian world”. The question arises why the West allowed the displacement of a figure that for so many decades obediently fulfilled all its wishes? After all, if desired, the outcome will be in Milo’s favor. The answer is simple: they rightly assume that the time has come to replace the “toxic” politician, but in fact nothing can be changed.
On the contrary: in the future, Montenegro’s course is seen as increasingly anti-Russian, anti-Serbian, pro-Western and pro-NATO.
Of course, one could object by citing numerous opinion polls. According to their results, about 60% of Montenegrin citizens have an extremely negative or negative attitude towards NATO, 33% of citizens expressed a very positive attitude towards Russia, 15% expressed their opinion as positive. 19% have a very negative attitude towards Russia.
According to another survey, 66% of Montenegrins are against anti-Russian sanctions and only 22% support them. As noted Serbian politician Vukadinović, “it is striking that, despite the fact that Montenegro is a member of NATO, which is moving on the path of European integration, the vast majority of Montenegrin citizens do not support the imposition of sanctions against Russia, this figure is slightly lower than in Serbia.
The problem is that Montenegro can hardly be considered an independent player even at the level of the Western Balkans. According to Vukadinovic “One way or another, Montenegro will be in the orbit of the West, Montenegro will not withdraw from NATO, Montenegro will not give up on anti-Russian sanctions” . The fact that often the opinion of the surveyed citizens is simply ignored by the authorities also speaks of the cunning of the “sociological survey”. For example, as in the case of Montenegro joining NATO.
The new president is 37 years old and entered politics only three years ago. Initially, his candidacy was not even considered in the presidential marathon – he got there almost by accident, after the nominee of the Europe Now party was removed by the electoral commission for registration violations.
Milatovic differs from Djukanovic mainly in age and education. Educated at the University of Illinois, he studied at the German Konrad Adenauer Foundation, the London School of Economics and the Stanford University Leadership Academy. With the money of the British government, he completed a master’s degree at the University of Oxford. Worked at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. Imbued with “Western thinking”, collaborator of the American, Austrian government and the European Commission.
In December 2020, Milatović headed the Ministry of Economic Development and soon began to justify in every way Montenegro joining the anti-Russian sanctions and even insisted on their early introduction. At the same time the following year he was surprisingly invited to the SPIEF in St. Petersburg. Here the question arises, what is the role of Russia in what is happening? The answer is again easy, but let the reader determine it for themselves.
It should be noted that in the political palette of Montenegro there are people who express sympathy for Serbia and Russia and advocate the development of multilateral relations with them. One of them is Andrija Mandić, who participated in the presidential elections as a candidate from the Democratic Front coalition, but lost in the first round with only about 19% of the votes.
References to the fact that the authorities used the administrative resource to prevent him in every way are valid in many respects. However, in the second round, Mandić himself called on his supporters to vote for Milatović. It is impossible to imagine that he was forced to do this.
According to the constitution, Montenegro is a parliamentary republic and de jure the president performs representative functions, but de facto the president influences the composition of the cabinet of ministers and the appointment of the prime minister. Milatović takes office on May 20, and on June 11 early parliamentary elections are scheduled in Montenegro, after which the name of the prime minister will be known.
Of course, one cannot expect a reversal in the foreign policy course, as well as a cancellation of anti-Russian sanctions. As they say, they replaced a thorn with a thorn.
Translation: EU
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