The current ACM chairperson is Milica Pejanovic – Djurisic, a long-time official of the once ruling DPS, former minister of defence and a reputable senior diplomat. The activities of the ACM are realised through three centres of which the Digital Forensic Center (DFC) comes to the fore. DFC was founded in 2018 and has released a number of publications on Russian malign influence, mainly from the view point of DPS

Last week (3-4 Oct) the 14th To Be Secure Forum Montenegro (2BS) took place in Hotel Splendid in Becici – Budva, under the auspices of the Atlantic Council of Montenegro (ACM). Its website states that 2BS is a leading politico – security conference in Southeast Europe. This year’s topic is World in Disorder: Turning Adversity into Opportunity with a focus on the repercussions and security challenges in the Western Balkans.

The event brought together more than 400 participants including government officials, high-ranking representatives of international organisations and diplomatic missions, and prominent experts in security and international relations. ACM points out that “it has devoted itself to the promotion of Euro-Atlantic values ​​and international security since it was founded in 2006”. In the same year, the ACM became a member of the global Atlantic Charter Association (ATA).

The current ACM chairperson is Milica Pejanovic – Djurisic, a long-time high official of the Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS). She was also a Minister of Defence and a reputable senior diplomat. The ACM activities are carried out through 3 centres, of which the most exposed is the Digital Forensic Center (DFC) founded in 2018. DFC has released a number of publications on the subject of Russian malign influence, mainly from the view point of DPS. Allegedly, the DFC was founded in order to “fight against disinformation, fake news and propaganda campaigns aimed at destabilising democratic processes in Montenegro and the Western Balkans.”

The founder of the 2BS Forum and the DFC is Savo Kentera from Budva. He chaired the Montenegrin Atlantic Council from 2008 until May 2022, when the minority government of PM Dritan Abazovic (supported by DPS in the national assembly) appointed him to head the National Security Agency (NSA). Mr Kentera lasted little less than 5 months. As soon as the 12th 2BS Forum in Becici was over, he was sacked by the government following the DPS termination of support to Abazovic after he signed signed the controversial Concordat with the Serbian Church (SOC). Prior to his sacking Mr Kentera launched an NSA operation against Russian spy network, allegedly in cooperation with international partners and the Special Prosecutor’s Office (SPO). Two Montenegrin citizens were arrested, 6 Russian diplomats were expelled, and 28 foreigners were barred from entering the country.

However, the whole operation turned out to be a farce. Eventually, the two Montenegrins were not accused for espionage. Only one was suspected for illegal possession of weapons. No trial has ever taken place. 

It is worth noting that the 2BS Forum founder (who claims that he supports Euro-Atlantic values) for many years chose the same hotel for the conferences. The founder of Hotel Splendid and its majority owner is now late Viktor Ivanyenko – retired director of the infamous KGB. During his term under President Boris Yeltsin, the service changed its name to the Federal Security Service (FSB). How a state employee and the chief of spies of the Russian Federation (and with money of dubious origin) came to own 4 hotels on the Montenegrin coast was never a reason for any concern, let alone inquiry, while the country was led by so-called  pro-western Milo Djukanovic.

The Russian president Vladimir Putin (who was also at the helm of FSB following Ivanyenko’s retirement) said in 2004 that “ there is no such thing as a former KGB man”. The hotel is known as a meeting place of Russian intelligence and foreign and local business people and/or criminals. One of them, very close to Djukanovic, was put on the US Treasury’s blacklist, while another of his buddies is now under the protection (from going to prison) of Aleksandar Vucic. 

Not only politicians and criminals have links with the Russian intelligence. In the aforesaid hotel on 24 May 2022 the then head of the Montenegrin Church (MOC) Miras Dedeic (The Rt Rev. Mihailo) met with a GRU (Main Intelligence Directorate) colonel Leonid Malofeyev. After a 5-hour meeting the two were photographed together. Mr Malofeyev, whose photographs with the Rt Rev. Mihailo were published by Podgorica-based Antena M, appeared in the robes of the Metropolitan of Moscow and All of Russia of The True Orthodox Church of Russia under the monastic name of Seraphim.

The aforementioned religious organisation (which is one of the proxies of the Russian intelligence) has developed deep ties with the MOC, including financial ones, according to critics of Bishop Mihailo. On the other hand, the Serbian Church has never even tried to conceal its non-spiritual ties with the Moscow Patriarchate. Based on the briefly opened state archives after the collapse of the USSR, the current Russian Church (ROC) head Kirill Gundyayev, is also a KGB agent who was later awarded tax free business with alcohol and cigarettes.

Much has already been published and circulated about substantial financial and political support of Vladimir Putin and his oligarchs to the project of independent Montenegro. Published audio conversations (covertly recorded) of the then Serbia and Montenegro ambassador to Russia Milan Rocen (and a long time confidante of Milo Djukanovic) have shed a new light on the Russian role in Montenegro’s independence drive. The release of heretofore unpublished recordings were recently heralded by the pro-Russian outlet IN4S. However, the publication of contents which could be potentially harmful to the DPS was stopped – allegedly on orders from the Russian embassy.

Under the DPS and its leader Djukanovic, Montenegro became one of the hubs for Russian spies and Russian organised crime in Southeast Europe. The western press and official reports of the western governments constantly warned about the Russian influence in Djukanovic’s fiefdom. Moreover, in 2011, the DPS signed a strategic agreement with Putin’s United Russia which has never been revoked. The DPS was recently challenged in the Montenegrin parliament to revoke the agreement with the United Russia. However, a DPS MP indirectly ruled it out.

In March 2023, a Russian opposition paper Novaya Gazeta and Transparency International, published a detailed report on the continued influx to Montenegro of Russian dirty capital, spies and intelligence experts for cyber warfare in 2019.

The purchase of real estates, including a cultural heritage site protected by law, and the further entrenching of Russian intelligence could not happen without the blessing of the DPS authorities. Back in 2019, Montenegro was already in NATO and claimed that it was on bad terms with the Kremlin due to so-called coup d’etat attempt in the fall of 2016 in the wake of parliamentary elections. The subsequent televised trial turned into a satirical farce resulting in the first-instance acquittal of all the defendants.

Nevertheless, the subsequent reactions of the prime minister show that the conference was rather used to promote Djukanovic again. Furthermore there are allegations of behind-the-stage efforts to broker a coalition deal for power sharing in the capital city of Podgorica with the political forces of the current president, Jakov Milatovic.

Spajic didn’t turn up at the Forum. He tweeted on X that the conference went “contrary to expectations” and became “mainly a platform for the analysis of local Podgorica election results by prominent experts like Djukanovic and Milatovic. They silenced the foreign guests by bickering against their own country.” According to informal sources, the Government has not wired the money yet. 

The quantity and quality of ACM’s cooperation with similar organisations is also questionable, at least when it comes to the promotion of the aforesaid Euro-Atlantic values. Those values should primarily mean support for democracy, the rule of law and fight against organised crime.

In communication with our paper, the director of the European Center of the Atlantic Council of the USA, Jorn Fleck, emphasises that the ACM and the American Atlantic Council are two completely different organisations. As for the activities of the US Atlantic Council in Montenegro, Fleck says that “one of the Europe Center’s nonresident fellows attended the Western Balkans Growth Summit in May in Kotor. The same fellow was invited by event organisers to attend the inauguration of President Milatovic”. Furthermore, “in 2019, the Atlantic Council took a delegation of Congressional Staffers to the region, including a stop in Montenegro”.

The Grechin case raises doubts that good statistics on fighting organised crime are more important than the fight itself. The prosecutor claims it’s a trafficking in women case whereas the allegedly trafficked women and the defence claim the opposite

Montenegro can hardly escape serious criticism in periodic reports on human rights violations and organised crime published by competent international organisations. However, the inadequate fight against human trafficking is the most serious objection. The State Department (SD) released the latest global report on human trafficking four days ago in Washington D.C. with highlights made by the US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken. When it comes to Montenegro in particular the report says “the Government does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of human trafficking, but is making significant efforts to do so.” However, “the government demonstrated overall increasing efforts” compared to very bad 2023; thus Montenegro was upgraded to Tier 2 countries.

One of the “increasing efforts”, although not mentioned in the report, could be the case of a US citizen Vitaliy Grechin and his three friends, two Ukrainians – Oleksandar Lishchynsky and Oleksii Blahoslavov and one Russian – Bogdan Petrov. The case raises suspicion that another fixing of statistics with technical/cosmetic embellishments might be in place, which was a common practice during the previous regime. Although the governing power has been changed, the Montenegrin courts, the state prosecution (with exception of the Special Prosecutor’s Office) and the police have remained largely unreformed and staffed with the vetted appointees of the former Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS) regime.

The indictment says that in October 2023, Grechin, together with the other three, then “a certain Marko R from Belgrade” and “a photographer Aleksandar from Russia” recruited and transported the victims in an organised manner “for the purpose of sexual exploitation and use for pornographic purposes”. The aforesaid Grechin, Blahoslavov and Petrov bought plane tickets for the girls and waited for them at the airports in Tivat and Podgorica, then transported them to “exclusive hotels and accommodation – villas and Hotel Regent in Porto Montenegro”. It is further claimed that the defendants “organised in advance the unannounced photographing and recording of naked bodies with the aim of sexual exploitation and use for pornographic purposes on (Internet) platforms”. Moreover Petrov was subsequently charged with facilitating the use of narcotics (Article 301 of the Criminal Code) since he had prepared a so-called joint at the request of one of the girls and left it ready for use on her bedroom terrace. The Forensic Centre in Danilovgrad found that the cigarette contained 0.06 grams of cannabis, while further 0.2 grams of cannabis remains were found on the grinder.

The topic is a very delicate one and requires a careful examination before jumping to conclusions. According to the case files, which the Monitor had access to, not a single girl believes she has been “rescued” by Montenegrin police. Out of 15 girls who gave statements before the prosecutor, 10 girls had serious objections to the behaviour of police officers. In the statements (made in November 2023, January and February 2024) the “rescued” girls described the Montenegrin police treatment of them as “rude”, “terrible” and “cruel”. They complained that they were “refused a lawyer”, denied a copy of their statement. They object to the official interpreters’ bias and deliberate mistranslation. Several of them said they were kept without food and water for hours, while one described how “a police officer hit the wall above my head when I wanted to say something”. Another said that “at the hotel they examined our bodies by undressing us in front of men” thus making her “morally and physically humiliated”. The police “kept us for 12 hours without food or drink and gave us no explanation” for such a treatment. Another girl described how the police officers “took us to the hotel to pick our things and were pulling us by our shirts, I felt malice and injustice”. One girl complained that “the police wrote down what I did not say” and that she signed the statement under pressure.

The only girl out of 18 alleged victims who joined the criminal prosecution against Gretchin is MM from Israel. One of Grechin’s lawyers, Nebojsa Golubovic, requested the court at the pre-trial hearing to exclude her statement from the case files because she consented to press the charges against Grechin at the time when the prosecutor was alone with her, without presence of the defence lawyers – which is against the law. The court records show that MM was interrogated without any lawyer being present on November 1, 2023, from 10:39 PM to 11:00 PM. In a recent telephone interview with the Monitor MM said that she had signed the statement “under pressure from the prosecutor and the police” having already been held for 6 hours. They wouldn’t allow her to call her parents. She says that no one translated what she was signing and that she was told that she could contact her parents only after she signed the statement. MM says that she doesn’t consider herself “rescued” by Montenegro’s police whereas Grechin is her longtime friend. Several other girls confirmed the same, saying that they came to Montenegro freely and that they had documents and money with them all the time and that they could move around freely. Some of them came with their parents and children to Montenegro several times and showed photos from 2023 and preceding years as a proof.

So far the HPO has not reacted to the accusations. The Monitor was told that a legal representative of 13 girls would soon file criminal charges against the police, both for inhuman treatment and for confiscating money, valuables and electronic devices from the girls. The Monitor also reached out a couple of local organisations that are specialised in protection of vulnerable groups and women’s rights. Both organisations refused to comment on the case files and/or get officially involved so as to monitor the proceedings.

The prosecutor in charge does admit in the indictment that, except for one, “the other witness statements (14 out of 15) do not correspond with the material evidence”, which raises the question of identification of human trafficking victims. The HPO refers to the statement of the European Court of Human Rights that “the victims themselves are often not aware that they are victims”. In this case, the public prosecutor claims that “in the case of existing material evidence – i.e. photographs and recordings obtained through searches of electronic devices, the inconsistency of their statements must be interpreted as the fear of the consequences of the proceedings and as the fear of the defendants themselves”. The prosecutor further points out that “the witnesses who didn’t testify in favour of the defendants, and even the witness who has joined the criminal prosecution, together with the witnesses who testified in favour of the defendants, eventually submitted their authorisation for use of the aforementioned photographs and recordings”. That was done “through the defendants’ attorneys and not through their appointed (by the prosecutor) attorney”.

The defence lawyers reject the prosecutor’s reasoning as in that line of work the so-called release forms are almost always signed when the photos are accepted for publication. This can be verified on the websites of several big photography agencies which provide similar services.

The prosecutor also claims that the material found in electronic devices has “explicit” and “pornographic” content. The allegation is pretty questionable though as it makes no distinction between pornography and erotica. Among the “evidence” are photos published in renowned American erotic magazine Playboy (Russian-language edition), for which Grechin and internationally awarded photographer Oleksandar Lischynsky worked for many times. Lischynsky lives in the Netherlands and erotic art photography is his specialty. Besides Playboy, he had his photographs published in other similar magazines, and on websites. He also held exhibitions in Germany and other EU countries. Some of the presented Playboy editions of 2019 and 2020 have bylines of Lischynsky (as a photographer) and Grechin (as a spatial designer).

One of Grechen’s attorneys Mr Vuk Jaredic submitted to the court the analysis of Dr Nikola Markovic PhD, a court expert in the field of art history – fine and applied arts. Dr Markovic made the report at the request of Mr Jaredic. He states that “when it comes to the aforesaid material, it is clearly visible that the author (Lischynsky) carefully and responsibly avoided any display of pornography or any content that ultimately could be noticed and recognised for explicit display or sexual organs or other sexual acts”. He further states that “it is clear that the aforesaid photographic material was not created for the purpose of any sexual gratification, but rather it was the author’s endeavour for an aesthetic solution whereby he tries to express his creative approach”. 

Another court expert (for copyrights) Professor Miodrag Jovanovic PhD drafted his analysis upon Mr Jaredic’s request. Based on the statements of the each girl and their subsequent signed authorisation, he says that it proceeds that “the photographs and recordings made on 30 October 2023 are the authorship and intellectual property of Oleksandar Lischynsky”. Furthermore ”he had the absolute right to distribute, sell, give away and publish the aforesaid photographs and recordings, and to transfer the rights to third parties” concludes Professor Jovanovic.

Copies of the Playboy magazine were handed by the defence attorneys to the then chairman of the High Court in Podgorica Mr Boris Savic at the pre-trial hearing (for control and review of the indictment) on 14 May this year. Public prosecutor Ana Kalezic did not turn up at the hearing. The defendants and their attorneys vehemently opposed the allegations in the indictment and asked the High Court chairman to reject the indictment as the deeds described therein do not constitute the criminal offence of human trafficking. The four have been in the pre-trial detention for eight months now.

Is the recent hunt on alleged Russian spies a cunning attempt to conceal the Kremlin ties with people around President Djukanovic? Djukanovic and his chief advisor Milan Rocen are accused of being the prime Russian asset in the country

Montenegro Parliament’s Security and Defence Committee held a public hearing over the recent operation of the country’s National Security Agency (NSA) which allegedly was conducted together with its “western partner services”. Reportedly tens of Russian spies were arrested. However, the public hasn’t heard a single Russian spy name. Only the name of a retired Foreign Ministry official Radomir Sekulovic and his best man came out. Mr Sekulovic was allegedly the head of Russian spy network in Montenegro. At the end, instead of espionage, the aforesaid two men have ended up being charged for illegal possession of a pistol and a few bullets. Some media published “reliable NSA information” that Sekulovic “had confessed everything” and therefore he was spared from indictment. Sekulovic publicly denied the charges. 

Espionage and connections with intelligence services has been a valued business in Montenegro since the Ottoman days and perpetuated under Yugoslavia’s strongman Josip Broz Tito. Although the Montenegrins made up only about 2.5 percent of the Yugoslav population, the share of high-ranking Montenegrins in the security services in post-war Tito’s Yugoslavia was almost ten times the average. When Tito broke with Stalin in 1948 many Montenegrins were sacked and arrested for siding with Russia. The infamous concentration camp in Goli Otok (remote island in Croatia) received a disproportionately large number of Montenegrins. Many ended up there only due to false reports and snitching since those loyal to the Yugoslav regime worked hard to turn in as many “enemies of the people” as possible. The legacy of Goli Otok has left a deep mark in the national identity of Montenegro in the following decades.

The euphoria of working for spy agencies returned big way with the “Anti-bureaucratic Revolution” in Montenegro and its “spontaneous protests” in 1990 organized by the Serbian intelligence service (UDBA) under Slobodan Milosevic and his Yugoslav Army Counterintelligence Service (KOS). The result was the installation of Momir Bulatovic, Milo Djukanovic and Svetozar Marovic to run the puppet regime in Montenegro. In the fervour of Greater Serbian nationalism and the unfolding war, the notorious trio persecuted everyone who was considered pro-western, liberal and democratic. Journalists, human rights activists, opposition leaders and anyone who opposed war, mafia and corruption were regularly labelled as CIA, MI-6, and BND collaborators. On the other hand, Serbia, Russia, and China were role models.

Now, formally speaking, the situation is reverse. Once dominant Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS) and its leader Milo Djukanovic cry about “malignant influence” of Russia and Serbia everywhere.  Moreover, they claim that they fight against the new enemies together with “partner services” – the same CIA, BND and others which the DPS once termed as “enemies of Serbian people and Montenegro”. However, the Chinese Communist Party (CPK) remains revered by both President Djukanovic and his archenemies in the Democratic Front (DF). Both Djukanovic and the DF leaders sent warm regards and praises to the Chinese for the recent CPK Congress.

The public hearing before the Parliament’s Security and Defence Committee (SDC) held on October 28 largely resembled the well-known television comedy – Balkan Spy. SDC summoned the recently sacked National Security Agency’s (NSA) chief Savo Kentera and the dismissed Foreign Minister Ranko Krivokapic. The idea was to review the recent NSA operation allegedly conducted with “Western partner services”. According to Mr Krivokapic’s statement at the time of the alleged operation “dozens (of spies) have been apprehended”. At the end, it was much ado about nothing. 

The news outlets further reported that among 28 “Russians” who were declared personae non gratae, several of them were actually Serbian citizens. The first on the list is Vladimir Bozovic, the (pro-NATO) ambassador to Montenegro who was already declared persona non grata in the last days of the outgoing Djukanovic-led government in 2020. Others are Vladimir Mandic–  a former Serbian handball national team player and Dane Sijan – also famous handball goalkeeper in the former national team of Serbia and Montenegro. The list reportedly includes prominent church figures – Podgorica archdeacon Velibor Dzomic and Dajbabe Monastery Abbot Danilo. Dzomic used to coordinate the Legal Council for the Diocese of Montenegro and was often seen in the company of Djukanovic’s tycoons.  In addition to the aforesaid, six employees of the Russian Embassy in Podgorica were expelled. Thus the official embassy staff came down to the ambassador and his chargé d’affaires.

The SDC chairman and one of the leaders of the Democratic Front (DF), Milan Knezevic accused Djukanovic-faithful ex NSA boss Kentera for “targeting the entire Serbian nation and its priests” and added that Kentera was “a registered CIA agent”. Knezevic pointed out that “if anyone should be arrested and interrogated that’s none other than Milan Rocen. He is the chief Russian operative in Montenegro”. Mr Rocen is top Djukanovic’s advisor in charge of his foreign policy and capital investments. He was also the protégé of arrested and then released Mr Sekulovic. 

Former foreign minister Krivokapic accused Knezevic of “following orders from outside”, alluding to official Belgrade and the Kremlin. Knezevic retorted that whoever claimed that he worked for foreign interests is “a damn liar and a scoundrel”.

The former NSA chief Kentera said at the beginning of his testimony that his late father had built a church to St. Sava in Pastrovici, whereas he attended church services when others did not dare (in communist days). He added that “those who have no respect for this state, her institutions and the system should have no business here”. Kentera explained that “all those names were put on the list for a reason”. Kentera, just like Krivokapic before, tried to connect his sacking with the alleged operation against the Russian spy ring. “We started to eliminate the spy network but we were eventually foiled in the middle of it” Kentera said.

Prior to being appointed to head the NSA in a compromise between reformist Prime Minister Dritan Abazovic and his opponent President Djukanovic, Kentera was heading the Atlantic Council of Montenegro (ACofM) for many years. He was often seen in the company of American and other Western diplomats and officials of the Alliance. Kentera-led NGO was formally propagating Montenegro’s NATO accession. ACofM also received generous donations to set up the Digital Forensic Center (DFC), which was meant to fight disinformation and promote Western values. 

However, in mid-September 2021, DFC published a detailed study of Russia’s Influence in the Balkans – The Case of Montenegro. The Study was translated and distributed to foreign diplomats by DPS officials. The contents of the Study on Russian malign influence in Montenegro pretty thoroughly rely on DPS party communiques and the narratives of the former Chief Special Prosecutor Milivoje Katnic (who was previously a loyal military counterintelligence official under Slobodan Milosevic).

The DFC study “studiously” avoided any reference to well-known links of Djukanovic’s and his DPS with Russian intelligence, mafia and oligarchs. DFC conveniently dropped to mention that Russia was the key international player which supported Montenegrin independence back in 2006 and that disgraced Trump’s campaign chief Paul Manafort had been hired with Russian money to campaign for Montenegro’s independence. The DFC pointed to the cooperation agreement of Milan Knezevic’s Democratic People’s Party (DNP- part of the Democratic Front coalition) signed with Putin’s United Russia. On the other hand, the DFC skipped to mention that Djukanovic’s DPS had signed the same strategic cooperation agreement with Putin’s party already back in 2011 and has never revoked it since. Then DPS spokesman Rajko Kovacevic (and later Djukanovic’s chief of staff) said “that DPS does not recognize the (Putin’s) party as dictatorial. United Russia is a party that has 315 out of 450 deputies in the Russian Duma. Thus we are the right address for talks and strategic cooperation and interests that we want to develop”. The DFC also bypassed a large number of State Department reports on Russian money laundering in Djukanovic’s fiefdom and the installation of Russian intelligence agents in the state institutions of Montenegro under Djukanovic-led government. Furthermore, the DFC study does not contain a single word about havoc wreaked in Montenegrin economy by KGB/FSB “investors” who had taken over Podgorica Aluminium Plant (KAP), Niksic Steel Mill and prestigious hotels on the coast. The Russian “investors” walked away with hundreds of millions of euros and left further hundreds of millions of debts – all with the blessing of the supposedly pro-EU and pro-NATO DPS authorities. The property of Oleg Deripaska is still intact and safe in Montenegro even though Deripaska is under Western sanctions introduced after Russia invaded Ukraine in February this year.  

It is also interesting that all To Be Secure (2BS) conferences of the Atlantic Council and Mr Kentera were held in Hotel Splendid. Its founder and majority owner is none other than the former director of the KGB/FSB General Viktor Ivanenko. His ownership is easily verified by a simple check in the public business registry – CRSP. The fact that a retired chief intelligence officer of Russia owns a prestigious hotel chain in Montenegro seems to be totally irrelevant to Kentera’s Atlantic Council and thus unworthy of a single reference in the DFC Study. Moreover, the profile of widely known main hotel guests and tenants who are from the same criminal and intelligence milieu is something that the DFC study chooses not to mention at all. Perhaps this is among the reasons why the main Western embassies have been very silent on the dismissal of pro-Djukanovic Kentera, Ranko Krivokapic and Rasko Konjevic (former defence minister). In informal conversations with Monitor, several diplomats from the old members of the Alliance pointed that the main Russian influence in Montenegro was still exercised through people in Presedent Djukanovic’s inner cirle “because the lucrative ties with the Russian mafia and intelligence are not something that you easily cut off, despite sweet-talking rhetoric”.

Andrija Mandic –another leader of the pro-Russian Democratic Front (DF) indirectly admitted at the public hearing that Russia prefers Djukanovic’s DPS over his political organisation for strategic cooperation whereas his DF is reduced to the role of “useful idiots” (KGB terminology). “While we were fighting the biggest battle to preserve our common state (with Serbia), do you know who was supporting independent Montenegro? Exactly those (Russian) partners of Milan Rocen” adding that the DPS “didn’t mind their help to achieve independent Montenegro… the (intercepted) phone conversations have been published, there’s evidence and now you play completely dumb and point finger at us”. In addition, Andrija Mandic implicitly admitted that during so-called coup d’état trial the Serbian services were actively helping Djukanovic and Katnic (former Chief Special Prosecutor) by supplying them the so called evidence.

Moreover, Mr Mandic compared the current role of Mr Rocen to the role of Tito’s chief intelligence officer, Ivan Stevo Krajacic. He explained that “after Krajacic’s death, Russian agents came to take over his radio station which he used to report to Moscow frequently”. Thus, “what Stevo Krajacic used to be in Tito’s Yugoslavia, now is Milan Rocen in Montenegro”. Mandic added that Mr Rocen is “the main protagonist of (Kentera’s) values” with whom he chases “alleged Russian agents around Montenegro and play double and triple games of all kinds in the security services theatre”. Mandic further revealed what socializing with foreign diplomats looked like from his side during August 2020 elections saying that “the lead person on our list (former PM Zdravko Krivokapic) could hardly wait (after electoral victory) to go to the American embassy and ask what he should do”.

The pro-Djukanovic and the pro-Serbian media in Montenegro have been visibly silent on allegations against President Djukanovic’s chief adviser Milan Rocen that he is the actual head of the Russian spy ring in Montenegro. DPS-controlled media are silent about its ties with Russia, while pro-Serbian portals find it hard to digest that much beloved Putin prefers Milo over Montenegrin Serbs. So far, the Prosecutor’s Office hasn’t responded to direct calls of the Prime Minister Dritan Abazovic and the DF leaders to investigate Rocen’s and Djukanovic’s links with Russia.

Memory of love

Despite the strategic orientation of Montenegro, relations with Russia will always be among the mainstreams of our strategic foreign policy. No one can replace Russia – neither the European Union nor NATO. These are not empty words – Milan Rocen (RIA Novosti 2007)

Jovo MARTINOVIĆ