LOCAL PRESS
Inhabitants of Kursumlija villages request return of gendarmerie and organize village guards (Beta)
The inhabitants of several Kursumlija villages along the administrative line with Kosovo have announced that they will organize village guards, because gendarmerie members withdrew from the nearby base of Trpez three days ago, the president of the Dobri do local community Radovan Jelic announced. Jelic told Beta that one part of the population has announced that it will leave the village because they fear for their safety. He warned, together with councilor Milivoje Tomovic and several villagers, the representatives of the local self-government that, following the withdrawal of the gendarmerie from that part of the administrative line, the locals are left alone and that their safety is endangered. They requested the local self-government to react as soon as possible and to return gendarmerie members to the Trpeza base. “Immediately after the withdrawal of the gendarmerie from this Kursumlija village, the armed Kosovo Albanians shot several times towards the boundary. We don’t feel safe and if we are not provided with safety soon, we are ready to organize ourselves by setting village guards, because one part of the population announced it will leave the village,” said Jelic. Tomovic recalls that at issue is a critical region, because thieves constantly invade the territory of the Kursumlija municipality and illegaly cut the forest. “The locals remember well when a group of armed Albanians from Kosovo intruded six years ago and killed Dusan Micinovic. That is why the locals are very scared,” said Tomovic. Jelic says that 30 kilometers around the administrative line between Serbia proper and Kosovo is not secured by anyone.
Over 7.000 signatures for Ivanovic’s release pending trial (RTS)
Vice President of the Civic Initiative SDP Ksenija Bozovic stated that a petition with more than 7.000 signatures requesting that the SDP leader Oliver Ivanovic be released pending trial. The petition will be submitted to EULEX, international judges in Mitrovica and EU Special Representative in Kosovo Samuel Zbogar on Wednesday or Thursday. The Civic Initiative SDP communicated the petition was launched in cooperation with the Serbian Government and the Office for Kosovo and Metohija. Ivanovic was arrested in late January on suspicion of alleged involvement in crimes committed in Kosovo in 1999 and 2000. He is one of the detained Serbs in Kosovo that the Serbian Government has given guarantees of their being available to Kosovo’s judicial authorities in exchange for their release pending trial.
Freedom of Bishop John condition of the Serbian Orthodox Church (Novosti)
The fact that there is a will in Skopje to again sit at the table after a of 12 years break, was confirmed by the Head of the non-canonical Macedonian Orthodox Church (MOC), Stefan. He clearly said that he expects “honest dialogue without conditions,” and expressed the hope that “love will have an advantage over history and formalities.”
The Serbian Patriarchate has not yet officially responded. However, at the top of the Serbian Orthodox Church (SOC), we were told that the Serbian side was never pull outstretched hand to Skopje. The condition is, however, well known – to end persecution and release the Archbishop of Ohrid and Metropolitan of Skopje Jovan (Vraniskovski).
The Serbian Patriarchate recalls that in Macedonia the Archbishopric of Ohrid, which has autonomy within the Serbian Orthodox Church, acts canonically and that it is the only recognized Orthodox Church in this country. It is, however, subject to persecution, and authorities in Skopje have been refusing for years to even register it.
Letters shall soon start from Ohrid to Istanbul, Moscow and Belgrade. Their church is not in the diptych of churches, nor is it generally considered an Orthodox religious community.
A historian and expert on the recent history of the SOC Veljko Djuric Misina says: “It is well known that the MOC which declared its autocephaly in 1967 was organized by the will of the communist government in 1958. This is done in a non-canonical way. Discussions should continue in the interest of both parties. The Serbian side should acknowledge the existence of another church organization, but also to set as a condition the establishment of conditions from 1958.” Our interlocutor also says that the historical facts about the origin of MOC should be accepted at the talks and the existing canons for similar situations should be taken into account. According to him, the Macedonians are not in a position to condition, especially due to bad experiences with the agreement in Nis.
Bishop in prison for years
The only canonical Head of the Orthodox Church in Macedonia is serving a three-year prison sentence since last year. His judicial Golgotha lasts from 2002, when he joined the canonical unity with the Serbian Orthodox Church. Because of his firm stance he has undergone a series of show trials which culminated in a conviction, the seventh, for fraud and money laundering. Instead at the temples, Bishop Jovan performs his church mission in Macedonian prison Idrizovo for years.
Croatia hosts the far-right of the EU (Novosti/Jutarnji List)
Zagreb – Over 130 European ultraconservatives will gather in Dubrovnik in mid-June in order to define the right wing policy towards the EU. The hosts will be their most famous Croatian Ruza Tomasic. The word is about the members of the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR), who, based on previous studies of public opinion after the May elections for the European Parliament, could become the third strongest political group in the European Union after the European Populists and Christian Democrats, respectively, socialists and social democrats.
Arrival, as Jutarnji List says, is announced by all members of the European Parliament and fifteen of those to whom this is the last term. The gathering should be dedicated to defining the strategy for the next five years in the EU. The President of the European progressives Joseph Dol, to whom belongs the most influential opposition Croatian Democratic Union, recently described conservatives as Eurosceptics who are opponents of European values and announced that for the salvation of the EU cooperation with the Social Democrats after the election is possible. Dole has, the journal recalls, threatened that Tomasic, for her political views, cannot be on the list of the HDZ at the May elections, but the leader Tomislav Karamanko did not listen to him. Conservative ECR group was founded in 2009. And so far it has been the fifth-largest force in the European Parliament after the European People’s Party, the Alliance of Socialists and Democrats, the European Liberal, Democratic and reformist parties and the Greens.
Conservatives are challenging ideas of federalism and the creation of the United States of Europe, which European People’s Party and Social Democrats advocate. When, in early spring, this idea was promoted by the current Head of the European Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso, Eurosceptics have violently attacked him. Eurosceptics expect seventy seats at the May elections, most of which for the Conservative Party of British Prime Minister David Cameron and the Law and Justice from Poland.
REGIONAL PRESS
Putin awaits B&H’s answer to gas letter (Patria)
Russia expects an explanation from Bosnia and Herzegovina with regard to the letter from Vladimir Putin in which he warns that the gas supply would be halted because of Ukraine’s debt, explained Dmitri Peskov, spokesman for the Russian President, Patria reports. Peskov said that Moscow received a letter from European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso saying the EU is prepared for a dialogue on the gas supply. “This is a welcome letter. But it isn’t clear to us whether Barroso represents also those countries that are not member states of the EU who receive Russian gas: B&H, Macedonia, Serbia, and Turkey. That needs to be explained,” said Peskov. Several days ago, Putin said that he will wait another month before taking these steps. The B&H Presidency earlier confirmed that Putin’s letter had arrived. We are trying to ascertain whether B&H will respond to Putin, but sources in the Presidency told us that the letter was forwarded to entity governments who have energy in their portfolios and for now no explanation is planned.
Botsan-Harchenko: RS to be included in South Stream (Srna)
The Russian Ambassador to B&H Aleksandr Botsan-Harchenko said that there is absolutely no doubt that the RS will be included in the South Stream project. “Everyone understands that this is an issue of vital importance for the development of the economy and every man here,” Botsan-Harchenko told reporters in Banja Luka. He said that there is a strategy and desire on Russia’s part for the whole of B&H to become part of the South Stream project. “This is very important for the whole of B&H – Republika Srpska and the Federation of B&H,” Botsan-Harchenko said.
Bosniaks attacking RS, hiding behind Inzko’s back (Politika)
Calling the Office of the High Representative in B&H to urgently void the decision of the RS cabinet on verifying residence on the RS territory, Bosniak political leaders confirmed their subservient mentality and wish for international interventionism, whereby they are consciously destroying the democratic system in the country. This is a clear stand of the RS leadership on the occasion of the demands of the leading Bosniak parties – SDA, SDP and SBB – for the HR Valentin Inzko to void the decision of the RS cabinet on verifying the accuracy of data when registering residence on the RS territory. The decision is legal and constitutional, and its goal is to prevent criminal acts, fictitious residence and electoral engineering, the RS officials claim. Manipulations and abuses in regard to residence are possible over incomplete legal solutions at the B&H level, the RS cabinet states. Since the Bosniak parties blocked the adoption of the new law on residency in the B&H parliament, the RS parliament adopted the draft law on residency, and the RS government adopted this decision, which was immediately criticized by Sarajevo.
OHR: Unilateral decision (Novosti)
While Bosniak leaders are calling for Inzko’s concrete move, the Office of the High Representative has only announced that the decision of the RS government on residency is “unilateral, non-constructive and disappointing” and that is represents a “step backward” in the process of resolving this sensitive problem. Bosniak leaders claim that this decision is anti-constitutional and anti-Dayton, because “it most grossly violates human rights of returnees and the existing regulations at the B&H level.” The SDA claims that this decision “enables the RS police to grossly violate the rights of returnees.” “The goal of this decision is continuation and legalization of ethnic cleansing and genocide conducted on the territory of the RS entity,” the SDA official and the Chair of the B&H Presidency Bakir Izetbegovic says. Zlatko Lagumdzija’s SDP also requests Inzko to void the decision, because it violates the B&H Constitution, which regulates the residence issue. The Coordinator of the “First March” coalition Emir Suljagic has stated that with this decision “the RS government made a serious step towards breaching peace in B&H.” Bosniak politicians have stated that in case there is no reaction from Inzko, they will use legal means to void the decision before the B&H Constitutional Court.
Radojicic: FB&H law also disputable (Fena)
The RS parliament speaker Igor Radojicic has stated that Bosniak parties in the B&H parliament prevented the adopting of the law on residency. He said that the RS parliament adopted the draft law on residency, giving another time space for the law on residency to be adopted at the B&H level, which would be an optimal solution. “Those disputing the validity of some decision have a regular constitutional way for complaining, just as the RS will file a complaint to the B&H Constitutional Court when the law adopted in the FB&H parliament becomes effective,” said Radojicic.
Attempt at reducing salaries to B&H officials fails (Novosti)
Six months before the elections, politicians in B&H have realized that public spending is enormously high so they decided to reduce it to some extent by reducing salaries to elected and appointed officials at the B&H level, i.e. to members of the B&H Presidency, Council of Ministers and B&H parliament. The salaries of Presidency members amount to more than 2,500 Euros, and of members of the Council of Ministers and parliamentarians to more than 2,000 Euros, without determined additional income. In order to follow regulations, several various draft laws have been forwarded for parliamentary procedure, including the draft of the SNSD MP Milorad Zivkovic, according to which the salaries of B&H politicians would be reduced by 42 percent. Niko Lozancic, the HDZ B&H MP, has offered the draft framework law on limitations in managing public funds at all B&H levels, and there are three MP initiatives that imply reduction of other privileges. All these drafts were examined at the last session of the B&H parliament’s House of Representatives on Wednesday, but a joint stand was not reached on any of them, so the final conclusion reads that the Council of Ministers commits to draft a law on reducing public spending in the next ten days, including salaries and other income. The conclusion still didn’t reach the B&H Ministry of Finances and Treasury, but this Ministry confirmed for the media that, once they receive it, they will try to do what they had been requested, although they think that a 10-day deadline is “very short.” Analysts assess that launching parliamentary procedure on reducing high income of officials in the leading institutions of executive and legislative authority is only a “transient fraud” invented by politicians in order to fortify their positions. Economic analyst Aleksa Milojevic warns that the resolution of the crisis is not in reducing spending, but in increasing production and that one should not always listen to all advices of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). “Each state that obeyed IMF’s advice to seek a way out of the crisis by reducing wages has fallen into an even deeper crisis and depression. The way out is not in reducing spending, but in higher production, and based on this on greater spending. That is the basis of the solution to our crisis,” Milojevic told a Sarajevo portal.
B&H violates obligations from Agreement on energy community (EuroBlic/Srna)
B&H is violating the obligations in the gas sector because relevant laws have not been adopted at the state level, the Ministerial Concil of the energy community concluded, calling B&H authorities to respect the undertaken obligations from the Agreement on the energy community in the gas sphere by adopting the necessary laws by June 2014. In case B&H doesn’t fulfill the obligations, the Ministerial Council will consider this a severe and permanent violation of the Agreement. The Secretariat of the energy community warned B&H two years ago to respect the decrees of the 2003/55/EC directive and EC decree number 1775/2005. “B&H continues to violate internationally assumed obligations as the signatory of the Agreement on the energy community because there is no agreement among the entity authorities to draft a state legal framework and to establish a relevant body at the state level in line with the EU requests,” the European Commission notes. It goes on to say that there is no regulatory body in B&H for gas issues at the state level, adequate legal, functional and accounting separation in entities, as well as that there is no defined and published network tariff. There is no open market in line with the deadlines from the 2003/55/EC directive and a different treatment of state and border transfers.
The gas infrastructure in the RS is based on the access to the South Stream pipeline with the RS strategy of energy development until 2030, whereby the RS government has given it a national status. The government signed a memorandum on understanding with the Russian Gasprom. The B&H Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Relations states that the report on removing irregularities will be submitted to the energy community before the deadline, June this year, because there are activities at the level of both entities towards implementing the decrees in the sphere of the internal market of natural gas in B&H. B&H Minister of Foreign Trade and Economic Relations Boris Tucic says that the RS adopted the law on gas, that a regulatory framework has been established, that an operative system has been appointed, and that a tariff methodology has been determined. He says that they are working at present at legally separating operators of the transport system, improving tariff methodology for the transport system in the RS and improving the regulations of the transport network. “The FB&H has a decree that regulates issues of the internal market of natural gas while the law on gas has been forwarded for adoption. However, the FB&H must resolve the establishing of a regulatory framework, legal separation of operators of the transport system, adopting tariff methodology for gas transportation and distribution, transparent conditions and procedure for access to the transport system, regulations of exemption for the new gas infrastructure, working regulations of transport system operators, as well as allocation of the status of qualified consumers to all consumers except households,” said Tucic.
If DF comes to power, it will try Milo (Beta)
The vice president of the New Serb Democracy (NSD), member of the Democratic Front (DF), Goran Danilovic has stated at the election rally in Pljevlja that the DF “would betray and fail Montenegro if Milo Djukanovic would not be ensured a fair trial.” “We will not be prosecutors or judges, we are politicians, I would be personally disappointed if justice in this case would last one minute or one year,” said Danilovic. At the same rally, the DF leader Miodrag Lekic assessed that the Montenegrin society is led by an “uncontrolled authority that has no responsibility.” The leader of the Movement for Changes, another DF member, Nebojsa Medojevic says that the Montenegrin ruling Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS) is “an associated criminal organization that is plundering” Montenegro. The DF leaders said that it “hurts” them that the NSD MP Novica Stanic went against this opposition association. The DF election rally in Pljevlja confirmed the forecasts of political analysts that the election campaign on the eve of the elections on 25 May will be one of the rhetorically fiercest over the past two decades. For the time being, the DPS has most political opponents, with whom even its coalition partner in the government, the Social-Democrat Party, will not take part in the upcoming elections.
INTERNATIONAL PRESS
Serbian President Asks Vucic to Form New Government (Bloomberg, by Gordana Filipovic, 22 April 2014)
Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic formally named Aleksandar Vucic as prime minister designate, allowing the leader of the Progressive Party, the biggest group in parliament, to take office this month.
Nikolic previously met with other political groups that entered parliament after March 16 early elections and informed parliament that he gave Vucic the mandate to form a cabinet, Nikolic told reporters in Belgrade today. Vucic has invited the Alliance of Vojvodina Hungarians, the biggest ethnic minority party in parliament, and made an offer to the Socialists of outgoing Premier Ivica Dacic, as he seeks broad support for measures to overhaul the economy.
“Serbia is facing huge temptations and big work will start today,” Nikolic told reporters in Belgrade today after meeting with Vucic.
Vucic will seek to persuade the International Monetary Fund to approve a standby agreement by the end of June and take the biggest of the former Yugoslav republics closer to European Union membership. The new administration will have the strongest lock on power by a single party in more than two decades, when Slobodan Milosevic was still in control.
The yield on Serbian 10-year Eurobonds, maturing in 2021, was unchanged at 5.443 percent at 3:34 p.m. in Belgrade, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Coalition Agreements
“The Socialists will be part of the new government as well as the Vojvodina Hungarians and we will sign coalition agreements on Saturday,” Vucic said at the same briefing. “I will present to the party’s main board the cabinet and the government will be formed on Sunday.”
The make-up of the new government, which Vucic plans to be sworn in on April 27, will be decided at an April 25 meeting of the Progressives, which control 158 seats in the 250-member parliament.
“We will be changing ministers in the government, and the ministers will have to present the results of their work every six months,” Vucic said. “It’s much easier to do it now because we have absolute majority in parliament.”
Vucic has pledged to consolidate public finances after public debt rose 1.7 percentage points in January and February to 63 percent of gross domestic product and the two-month budget deficit reached 33.4 billion dinars ($399.2 million) against a 183 billion-dinar full-year target, according to Finance Ministry’s data. The government’s cash reserves with the central bank shrank by $500 million since January to $2.8 billion at the end of March, central bank data show.
Kosovo parliament votes for a new war crimes court (Reuters, by Fatos Bytyci, 23 April 2014)
PRISTINA – Kosovo’s parliament approved on Wednesday an EU-backed special court to try ethnic Albanian ex-guerrillas accused of harvesting organs from Serbs captured in the 1998-99 Kosovo war.
Eighty-nine deputies in the 120-seat parliament voted in favor of creating the court, although Prime Minister Hashim Thaci called it “humiliation and injustice” for the former Serbian province.
The allegations surfaced in a 2011 report by Council of Europe rapporteur Dick Marty, which said the Albanian guerrillas fighting a war of independence from Serbia had smuggled the bodies of Serbs into Albania and removed their organs for sale.
Marty explicitly mentioned Thaci and other high-profile officials from the ruling Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK) as the leaders of a group that committed alleged crimes.
Thaci, who was the political chief of the former Kosovo Liberation Army, has rejected the allegations as an attempt to tarnish KLA’s reputation. On Wednesday, he said the international community was forcing Kosovo to make a very difficult decision but there was no other way.
“This is the biggest humiliation and injustice for the state of Kosovo and its society,” he told deputies before the vote.
“A possible refusal will not only enforce the voices that say Kosovo is preventing … the verification of the claims from the report, but it will also have huge consequences for Kosovo in the international arena,” Thaci said.
Marty’s report said most of the alleged crimes occurred after June 1999, when NATO’s bombing campaign forced Belgrade to end the war and withdraw Serb forces from Kosovo.
U.S. prosecutor John Clint Williamson is investigating the allegations on behalf of the European Union, which has a mission in Kosovo to oversee major war crimes and corruption cases. Williamson is expected to wrap up his work within months.
The court will operate under Kosovo laws, but prosecutors and judges will be international. It will have one seat in Kosovo and another abroad, possibly in the Netherlands, which will deal with protected witnesses.
Analysts said the investigation could have a serious impact.
“Kosovo’s political scene would be substantially affected by any high-profile arrests that may happen in due time,” said Krenar Gashi, a political analyst in Pristina. “This could lead to political stalemates, while the risk for social unrest is somewhat lower but not negligible.”
So far, local efforts to investigate alleged war crimes by guerrillas have run up against widespread intimidation in the small country, where clan loyalties run deep and former KLA rebels are lionized.
An estimated 10,000 people died during the 1998-99 war, the great majority of them ethnic Albanians. About 1,700 people are still missing.
EU’s Ashton Due to Meet Serbian Leaders (BIRN, 23 April 2014)
Catherine Ashton, the EU foreign policy chief, is expected to visit Serbia next week, immediately after a new government is formed, to discuss EU integration and Kosovo.
Ashton is due to meet Aleksandar Vucic, Serbia’s future Prime Minister, on Monday, mainly to discuss the continuation of EU-mediated talks on normalisation of relations between Belgrade and Pristina, Balkan Insight has learned from an EU diplomat.
According to the diplomat, the two are due to discuss implementation of the April 2013 agreement on normalisation of relations.
In the last, 23rd round of the talks, on March 31, Kosovo and Serbia leaders reached a preliminary agreement on the judicial system in the Serb-run north of Kosovo.
Ashton and Vucic are also to discuss Serbia’s ongoing EU integration process. Serbia started EU membership talks in January and hopes to join the European club in 2020.
On Tuesday, Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic handed Vucic a mandate to form a government following his Progressive Party’s victory in the March 16 general elections.
Vucic is due to sign coalition government agreements with the Alliance of Vojvodina Hungarians and the Socialists Party of Serbia.
In the election, the Progressive Party won 158 seats of the 250 seats, giving it an absolute majority, while the Socialists won 44 and the Alliance of Vojvodina Hungarians six.
According to Vucic, the new cabinet will be formed this week by April 27. He has pledged that it would be a modern and efficient government with no more than 17 ministers.
Serbia Probes Suspected Kosovo Mass Grave (BIRN, by Marija Ristic, 23 April 2014)
The Serbian authorities restarted a forensic search near the southern town of Raska where two bodies of ethnic Albanians killed by Serbian forces in the Kosovo war have already been found.
Expert investigators relaunched their hunt for the suspected mass grave on Wednesday at a quarry in the village of Rudnica near Raska, after the authorities knocked down a building under which it is believed that more victims’ bodies could be buried.
“The building which was at that spot has been demolished, therefore the conditions have been created so that forensic teams can enter the location and start digging and extracting remains,” said Veljko Odalovic, the head of Serbian Commission for Missing Persons.
The experts at the site are led by officials from Serbia’s Higher Court, and accompanied by representatives of Kosovo and international institutions.
The search for the buried bodies of victims killed in the 1998-99 conflict started in December last year on the orders of Serbia’s war crimes prosecution.
During the initial examination, two bodies that were exhumed were identified as Kosovo Albanians.
This is the second time that Serbia has probed the area. In 2010, the Serbian war crimes prosecution, in cooperation with the EU rule-of-law mission in Kosovo, announced that there could be a mass grave in Raska containing the bodies of at least 250 Albanians killed during the late 1990s conflict, although nothing was found until last year.
There are still 1,700 people listed as missing as a result of the Kosovo conflict.
NATO Chief Encourages Montenegro To Maintain Reform Momentum (RTT News, 25 March 2014)
NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen has described Montenegro as an important partner for the Alliance and welcomed the significant progress made by the country in the reform process, according to a press release issued Tuesday.
Rasmussen made the remarks during his meeting with Montenegro’s Prime Minister Milo Dukanovic on Tuesday. Dukanovic also met with the North Atlantic Council to discuss the progress in Montenegro’s reform agenda.
During their meeting, Rasmussen thanked the Prime Minister Dukanovic for his country’s contribution to NATO’s mission in Afghanistan and for the positive role Montenegro plays in the Western Balkans.
Commending the good progress made by Montenegro in implementing reforms, he said the momentum of implementing reforms will be key to the country’s Euro-Atlantic integration.
“Continuing this hard work is the best way to bring Montenegro into NATO and the European Union,” said the NATO Secretary General.
Rasmussen said Montenegro’s Membership Action Plan had identified key challenges that will need to be addressed, including reinforcing the rule of law, fighting corruption and organized crime and finding the resources to modernize the country’s armed forces.
He also noted that more could be done to explain the importance of Euro-Atlantic integration to the public, and stressed that Montenegro could count on the Alliance’s support.
“NATO’s commitment to the Western Balkans is strong,” he said. “We see your future in the Euro-Atlantic family and we are determined to help you get there.”
Russians in Montenegro – second homeland (Journal of Turkish Weekly, 10 April 2014)
The first inter-state relations between Montenegro and Russia were established back in 1711. In the fight against the Ottoman Empire Montenegro survived by relying on Russian assistance. Three hundred years later, these relations persist with the difference being that instead of military cooperation the present relation is characterized by economic and tourism cooperation between the two countries. The first serious wave of Russians in Montenegro arrived ten years ago. They came first as tourists and then as buyers of real estate. Now comes a new phase, in which more and more Russians are choosing Montenegro as a place to live. It is estimated that in Montenegro currently live about 15,000 Russians, who have their own schools, cultural communities, restaurants, as well as their newspaper and Russian radio, while their are regular tax payers. The largest Russian community is in Bar, Budva and Bokikotorskoj and a number of them is in Podgorica.
Russians of late have discovered Montenegro as a tourist destination. The more serious arrival of Russian tourists was registered only after 2000. After the Montenegrin referendum on independence in 2006 the Russians were no longer just tourists. They began to buy property and start their own businesses in Montenegro. It is estimated that between 2007-2009 Montenegro had around about 20,000 Russian citizens. Those on the coast and Podgorica own between 30,000 and 60,ooo housing units. During the tourist season, between May and September Russian arrivals to Montenegro reach about 180,000 people.
The reasons why Russians choose Montenegro for permanent residence, in addition to the beautiful climate, are also economic. They chose to set up their businesses in Montenegro, mainly beacause of the cheap lifestyle and an escape from the fast and expensive life. It should be emphasized that the Russians in Montenegro are somehow forced to engage in a business activity because it is the surest way to obtain a residence permit since owning property is not enough. It is generally the biggest criticism of Russians residing in Montenegro. Permanent residence can only be available to those who have a work permit and are residing in Montenegro for five consecutive years. Owning real estate is not enough and the Russians are forced to start their own business because otherwise they are limited to stay only one month at a time. Russian citizens are owners of 32% of the foreign companies in Montenegro.
