A vile bandit and dictator: American journalists demanded that Washington immediately overthrow Djukanovic
Washington must stop supporting President Milo Djukanovic's corrupt and authoritarian regime in Montenegro.
The influential American magazine National Interest writes about this, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
It is indicated that the ruling Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS) of Djukanovic is just a renamed Montenegrin League of Communists, and the president himself has been in power “longer than Stalin, Putin and Recep Erdogan.”
The author recalls that in 1991, as a protégé of Slobodan Milosevic, Djukanovic ordered the bombing of the Croatian Dubrovnik.
“However, today there are people in Washington who hail Djukanovic as an “elder statesman.” Enjoying such great popularity in Washington, Djukanovic turned Montenegro into his feudal fiefdom and mafia state,” the article says.
It is alleged that the president's relatives control the most important sectors of the economy. The interests of officials and organized crime are inextricably linked.
“The audit of the Djukanovic family bank by Price Waterhouse Coopers revealed one of the many mechanisms through which corruption operated in Montenegro. First, public funds were deposited in the first bank, which then provided loans to Djukanovic's associates and known organized crime figures such as Darko Saric, a notorious Balkan drug dealer.
Another tactic was for Djukanovic's friends to acquire state-owned enterprises, devalue them, and then declare them legally insolvent. 89% of state-owned enterprises that were privatized by Djukanovic went bankrupt,” the article says.
Thanks to a controversial $1,5 billion Chinese infrastructure loan, Montenegro's debt-to-GDP ratio has now risen to 80%. If Djukanovic defaults on the loan, the terms of the agreement will allow China to claim Montenegrin territory as collateral.
The author accuses the President of Montenegro of rigging elections and persecuting independent media.
“Djukanovic once said that investigative journalists should be “exterminated like mice,” and someone in Montenegro clearly understood this. In 2004, the editor of the opposition magazine Newsmagazine was killed. In August 2013, investigative journalist Toufik Softik was the target of a terrorist attack. In December 2013, an explosive device was detonated near the office of the independent newspaper Vijesti. In October 2015, Jovo Martinović, a journalist covering organized crime in Montenegro, was jailed for fifteen months on trumped-up drug smuggling charges. In April 2018, a car bomb exploded near the home of investigative journalist Saed Sadikovich. In May 2018, Olivera Lakic, a journalist writing about corruption, was shot dead outside her apartment in Podgorica,” the author of the article lists.
As polls show, dissatisfaction with the authorities in Montenegro is growing and mass protests by Orthodox Christians in the last month are only one manifestation of the general crisis.
“Over the past decade, Washington has allowed Djukanovic to make NATO membership a substitute for democratization. If Washington continues down this path, it will assume strategic responsibility for the instability and devastation that will accompany Djukanovic's rule.
If Washington is serious about promoting democracy in the Balkans, it will demand an end to the political repression and criminal behavior that is part and parcel of the Djukanovic regime, and will send a strong signal to other would-be petty authoritarians in the Balkans that their predation will no longer be tolerated,” the author concludes. .
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