Photo: S. MatićThe Commission for the Political System of Montenegro adopted a new package of sanctions against Russia, which is harmonized with EU sanctions and which directly affects Putin, Lavrov and Medvedev. It's just that the Commission does not have the authority to implement the sanctions, and the Government of Zdravko Krivokapić does not have a majority for it, as it does not have a majority in the Parliament either.
The Committee for the Political System of the Government of Montenegro, chaired by the current Vice President Dritan Abazović, agreed with the decision of the Council of the European Union and adopted a new package of sanctions against Russia. In addition to the energy and trade sectors, they also include new "targeting" of oligarchs who support the Kremlin's invasion of Ukraine. With this package, the Commission joined direct sanctions against Vladimir Putin, Sergey Lavrov, Dmitry Medvedev, the current Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin, but also, for example, the President of the Russian Republic of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov.
However, in order for this decision of the Commission to be implemented, it must be confirmed by the Government with a simple majority of ministers, and there is no such majority. EU sanctions due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, with which Montenegro has agreed so far, were adopted at the level of commissions, but did not take root in practice.
According to "Vijesti" from Podgorica, the outgoing Prime Minister Zdravko Krivokapić is delaying putting sanctions on the agenda of the Government sessions, because he cannot secure a majority. For adoption, it is necessary that seven out of twelve ministers are in favor of sanctions, and for now, two have abstained and four are against. So far, only the closure of Montenegrin skies for Russian airlines and private planes has passed since the measures against Russia.
As written on the Radio Free Europe portal, Krivokapić tried to push through the ban on the operation of the Russian state media Ras Today and Sputnik in Montenegro at the beginning of March, but that decision did not pass. Such a ban was implemented by the EU on the grounds that they were spreading Putin's propaganda.
Last week, Russia put Montenegro on the list of "enemy countries" because it imposed sanctions on Moscow.
Montenegro joined the sanctions against Russia for the first time in 2014, when Moscow annexed Crimea. Since then, the sanctions have only been tightened, at least declaratively, despite the fact that Montenegrin tourism is largely dependent on Russian tourists. Their number on the Montenegrin coast has decreased over the years, but it is still significant - last season, 12 percent of tourists were from Russia and 10 percent from Ukraine.
Dejan Milovac from the Montenegrin non-governmental organization MANS claims that the existing sanctions are not implemented in practice.
The Central Bank of Montenegro issued a press release stating that it "did not prohibit the opening of accounts by individuals and legal entities from the territory of the Russian Federation, because it is therefore not competent", and that "the decision on the implementation of all types of restrictive measures is made by the Government of Montenegro on the proposal of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs jobs".
The current package of EU sanctions includes a ban on all transactions with certain state-owned enterprises, a ban on providing credit services to all Russians or Russian entities, and an expansion of the list of persons under sanctions related to Russian defense and industry.
With these sanctions, the EU Council gave the green light to the European Commission to speak on behalf of the EU in the Statement on the Russian Federation's aggression against Ukraine with the support of Belarus, which will be published at the level of the World Trade Organization (WTO). The goal is to remove Russia from the list of privileged trading nations and for countries that do not implement sanctions against it to introduce higher customs rates for goods from Russia. In this case, Serbia will not have to declare itself, because it is not a member of the WTO.
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