Montenegro with sanctions package against Russia

The Montenegrin government approved on Friday a package of sanctions against the Russian Federation due to aggression in Ukraine.

“A package of restrictive measures against Russia has just been adopted! Thank you, all ministers for co-operation!”, wrote on the Twitter network, Montenegro's Deputy Prime Minister Dritan Abazovic, who led the government meeting in the absence of Prime Minister Zdravko Krivokapic, who is at an economic forum in Greece.

According to unofficial information from the government, all the ministers present were for imposing sanctions on Russia, besides Agriculture Minister Aleksandar Sjovic, who abstained.

American Ambassador to Montenegro Judy Reinke praised the Montenegrin government.

“Bravo! Important to see that the ally country, Montenegro, has joined the European Union's sanctions, which are determined to reduce Russia's capabilities to finance its inhumane, unfair and unprofesssed fight against Ukraine's population”, it wrote on social networks.

The adoption of the decision to impose sanctions on Russia was not on the agenda of today's Government meeting, but Mr. Abazovic, using the labour regulation, demanded changes in the agenda, with which the vote of the measures could be voted.

The Commission for the Political System of Government, headed by Abazovic, unanimously proposed a package of sanctions against Russia, in accordance with the European Union's sanctions package.

But on 17 March, the meeting of Montenegro's government was interrupted due to disagreements over the procedure of adopting the decision to impose sanctions on Russia.

Deputy Prime Minister Abazovic said after the break of the meeting that “everything was in order until we arrived at points pertaining to imposing sanctions on Russia, which passed on government commissions. We came to a situation that the prime minister proposed new conclusions aimed at making the decision on sanctions meaningless. We cannot make these things meaningless about Montenegro's international reputation. The results were very clear and harmonised with what the Council of the European Union approved, and everything beyond that is neither legally nor politically valid”, Abazovic said.

The war in Ukraine has divided political actors in Montenegro into two groups.

While the majority of Montenegrin officials support all EU actions regarding the war in Ukraine, pro-Serbian and pro-Russian parties, as well as the Serbian Orthodox Church in Montenegro, promote open support for Russia and its president, Vladimir Putin.