Montenegro and Serbia – It’s One Family

Good morning! Minister Krapovic must not say a word to Serbia, but that’s why he is making noise to Croatia. How much can this harm Montenegro, and is there a hidden agenda in this behaviour of our leaders: to isolate Montenegro, so that Serbia and Belgrade become our only window to the world again?

Montenegro and Serbia – It’s one family

Over 30 non-resident ambassadors in Montenegro work from Belgrade. Unlike other countries in the region, we have not solved it. Imagine the scandal if today the embassies of Norway, Sweden, Belgium, Holland, Israel or Finland in Kosovo or in Croatia – were in Belgrade.

Of course, we cannot expect every country to have an embassy in Montenegro, but it would be natural for them not to be in a country that treats Montenegro the way Serbia does. But that was perfectly fine with the DPS-SDP government, why not with this third attempt of the 30-August government. Instead of explicitly demanding that the embassies in Zagreb, Sarajevo, and even Rome cover Montenegro, we left it to the storm, so that PR strategies towards Montenegro are created based on input from the Belgrade bazaar, i.e. Serbian public opinion.

An extreme example of the harmfulness of this approach is, for example, that a Western European embassy, some time ago, thought it was a good idea to create a mural of Divna Vekovic as a heroine of feminism in Montenegro. An antisemitic woman and a member of the Chetnik movement. Luckily, there were enough smart people in Montenegro to explain to the diplomats from this still liberal country why this is a bad idea.

Dragan Krapovic is a man who was shaped by Belgrade public opinion. And he is not the only one. There are many people who have not seen Serbia except on weekends and during short visits, during which they were dazzled by the “bright city”. Similar symptoms as with Dritan and all those who studied in Kotor or Podgorica, but wanted to study in Belgrade. Everywhere else and outside of Belgrade, they can’t do it. Nowhere else do people like their, as they call it in Belgrade, “rural Montenegrin charm”. And in Belgrade, such profiles fit perfectly into the caricature stereotypes of “nicely primitive Montenegrins and Albanians” and there is always a place for them, as for court fools, at the court.

All this is happening to us because the living versions of Kursadzije (*a popular Serbian TV comedy series) characters have taken over the management of important resources in Montenegro. For such, there is no further than Belgrade. They see nothing beyond Belgrade. They went to “work and travel” and study trips for nothing. For them, it is important what Belgrade thinks, while Brussels and Washington don’t bother them much. Then, what can some “unimportant Zagreb” do? At the same time, there is a handful of Croats in Montenegro, hardly to have one MP. For the new independence-supporters, Zagreb is still the head of the snake that should have been struck in 1991, as that MP from the Montenegrin Parliament shouted.

That’s why we flatter Belgrade and show our teeth to Zagreb. Because that resonates with Krapovic’s voters. And the fact that Croatia is in the EU and NATO and that we should get on well with them, not out of self-interest, but out of a sense of shame for Dubrovnik and gratitude for the support for independence and the path to the EU, is another matter. Krapovic is not looking for that anyway. He thought that the siege of Durbovnik was a just war, and he fiercely and openly fought against Montenegrin independence. Krapovic knows that there is nothing Vijesti can’t wash. And Vijesti is now on his side. Especially when Spajic needs to be sabotaged.

My fellow citizen Zenovic is negotiating for nothing, when another fellow citizen Krapovic is defending us. He will defend us as he defended Budva, which is still “decorated” with billboards of Wagner’s IN4S and neo-Ljoticevci (Serbian Volunteer Corps) Miholjski Choir.

Maybe that’s the goal. Sabotage of negotiations and staying in the Serbian-Russian political-economic interest zone. Deregulation and tax havens. Orthodox Offshore Republic. Demo-theocracy. With the Metropolitan at the head. New Cyprus outside the EU.

That’s it for today. We wish you a pleasant rest of the day.

Kind regards,

Ljubomir Filipovic, CdM analyst and columnist.

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