He tries in vain

Modern technologies have demolished the bunkers of the world's strongest secret services. After the USA, WikiLeaks and Snowden, China was shaken as well, whose mystical wall of silence for decades could not be broken even by the all-powerful intelligence agencies of the West. Now the Consortium of International Investigative Journalists has revealed that hundreds of billions of dollars have been siphoned out of the country. A good part of the money ended up in the accounts of close relatives of the Chinese political elite. Accounts were opened in offshore destinations in the British Virgin Islands, and the Chinese elite were assisted in these transactions by reputable Western banks, as intermediaries. Sounds familiar.

How will official Beijing react to a scandal that reveals the essence of an order suffering from corruption? It is hard to believe that the top will enter into a battle with itself - the children, sons-in-law, grandchildren of the most powerful, in whose offshore accounts the billions stolen from Chinese citizens ended up.

A little earlier, the Montenegrin political elite was silent as a fish on the report of the same Consortium, which disclosed that in the period from 2001 to 2010, 111,8 billion dollars flowed from the Balkan countries. That money could have lifted the shattered post-Yugoslav economies.

Considering its size, Montenegro left the highest percentage - 138 percent of the gross national income, or 6,2 billion, almost ten thousand per inhabitant. About 50 percent of GDP comes from Serbia, and 25 percent from Croatia.

In all countries, the model was similar: companies in the Balkans were bought through offshore companies. The formal buyer was not required to disclose the ownership structure. Thus, in privatizations, foreigners only gave a name, and in the background there could be a domestic politician or businessman, who used an offshore company to take over the company, transfer assets abroad, and leave workers without work, explained the Consortium of International Journalists.

Billions of cash are not included in the Consortium's calculations. Not even the loads of tobacco money that were flown out of Montenegro by plane, which was documented in the recently announced Italian verdict against Stanko Subotic. Cane was acquitted, but traces of the great robbery remained in the Italian judiciary.

In the quarter of a century of Đukanović's rule, they took more than a billion from KAP alone. And millions from Željezara - through different companies, including offshore ones whose owners are close to Milo Đukanović's sister. The once powerful metallurgical chain, the backbone of our economy, is left with dead factories, debts and arbitration disputes abroad, which will cost Montenegro more.

It's not the end. Dilapidated factories, cleared of debts, sell below the grain for the umpteenth time. Who guarantees that we will not pay subsidies and loans to some new owners close to the top like Deripaska, Brković, MNSS, or the son of Svetozar Marović, Miloš. He entered the Aqua park project hidden behind an offshore company, only to raise millions of loans guaranteed by the Budva municipality...

A reporter for the International Research Consortium said that two and a half years ago, they received a hard drive in the mail with documents on offshore zones around the world, primarily in the Caribbean, the Virgin Islands, Singapore and the Cook Islands in the Pacific. Only part of that material, which relates to the Balkans, has been disclosed. The names of the account owners have not yet come up. Jadan Đukanović: he is trying to bring down the media that he does not control in Montenegro, believing that this will solve the problem and hide the traces of his quarter-century business - from KAP to Sveti Stefan, from Glencore to Restis. He leads campaigns against Vijesta, Monitor and Dan. Organizes gatherings, calls for pest control. He says that he is the main victim of unethical journalism. And two editors who wrote about Đukanović's transactions were killed. Several ineligibles were beaten, intimidated with bombs, the court and a vulgar verbal campaign led by a newspaper illegally funded by the prime minister.

I can erase everything here - the hard disk with the secret actions of the Montenegrin top is stored in other places. Excerpts from the verdict against Stanko Subotic testify to how our leader was filmed by Western friends, back in the nineties. They know everything about partnerships, money, accounts. About dark political murders, mafia deals, drugs and cigarettes. There is no Baby and Pink to pull it out when the file is opened. In Washington, Brussels or Moscow - it doesn't matter.

(Monitor)