It was in ancient times, when Montenegro was still a decent and orderly country, and its journalists were looking for the truth, not an attraction...
A young colleague arrived in the editorial office of the printed public service, overly eager to stand out as quickly as possible. Wherever the editor sent him, he would return full of adrenaline and shout excitedly from the corridor: "I have a bomb"...
There were no news bombs in the XNUMXs, the real ones will explode only at the beginning of the next decade...
But the young energetic colleague did get the nickname - Bomba. And he couldn't get rid of it even when he fully matured as a journalist and laughed with us at his beginner's enthusiasm...
I was reminded of that colleague, who is still dear to me today, by the bombastic announcement of the Office for the Control of Foreign Assets of the US Ministry of Finance.
- The United States of America imposed sanctions on Branislav Bran Mićunović and Miodrag Daka Davidović - this is the briefest content of that bombshell that reverberated through the Balkans.
Only in the media, for now... Or forever, judging by the wounds that Svetozar Marović, Nikola Gruevski and Milorad Dodik received as a result of the same explosions...
The first two are, thanks for the question, fine and healthy. All their financial assets are also in good condition, after they - together with the owners - received political asylum in Hungary and Serbia...
The third, thank God, is still in his native Republika Srpska. Whose owner he is, with a tendency to - with his "golden voice" - hold the destiny of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina for a long time to come...
So much for the possible consequences of American sanctions on two Montenegrin businessmen...
And what will happen to the best one from the title?
I don't know, my friend Đuro from Roga suggested that I forbid him from passing through Bjelopavlići, and it seems to me that the sanctions will be more effective if they also include Piper...
* * *
Anyway, it's time to see what the aforementioned Office's decision on sanctioning Mićunović and Davidović covers...
- All assets and interests in the assets of designated persons located in the US or owned or controlled by persons from the US are blocked.
- All companies that are owned, directly or indirectly, individually or in the total amount, 50 percent or more are blocked.
- All transactions by US persons with Designated Persons are prohibited, including the giving and receiving of any contributions, funds, goods or services from, to or for the benefit of any Blocked Person.
And what will be the consequences of those sanctions in reality?
The same as in the case of the three aforementioned who have been sanctioned for years, i.e. none.
Neither of these two have been in business since yesterday, on the contrary, the US Ministry of Finance recognizes their much longer experience, and the Montenegrin state authorities were not uninformed all that time either.
Mićunović and Davidović are not lagging behind when it comes to information, not only because of their long business but also political and life experience.
And that's why it was more than naive to expect that on November 16, 11, there would be any of their assets in the US at all, let alone "companies that are owned, directly or indirectly, individually or in the total amount, 2023 percent or more." ...
* * *
The never-ever-more-extensive explanation of the Office for Foreigners' Property in Washington is intended for the naive, and in all likelihood for one-time use.
And it is worded exactly as if it was written by that colleague from the beginning of the column, eager for bombastic news...
- Branislav Brano Mićunović has been a leading figure in organized crime in Montenegro for decades, dating back to the time of the former Yugoslavia.
What is it? It was said when I was still in elementary school.
Then - due to the arrest of the fierce Cerović brothers and some other similar Nikšić citizens without permission "from the top" - the respected police inspector received a decision on degradation, and the arrested person a certificate of innocence...
- He is best known for the illegal cigarette smuggling that corrupted and undermined the independence of the democratic institutions of Montenegro - I copy further.
It's no secret, Montenegro was officially informed about this 26 years ago by its President. It's just that he named a much younger man from Nikšić as the prime suspect for those phenomena...
This is not the first time Mićunović has been linked to "abuse of public property, expropriation of private property for personal gain or political goals, or bribery."
But it's not the first time that the institutions in Washington have been so obviously and for a long time - making a mess...
Ten years have passed, and that "sister of the highest official" from the Telekom affair is still nameless in the American papers available to Montenegro.
Despite the fact that even her brother did not shy away from publicly answering the question of whether his sister's name was mentioned in those papers:
- I guess yes because I don't know a single state official who has a lawyer sister. Secondly, I assume that yes because in the further elaboration in that document a contract is mentioned, the partner of which was the law office of Ana Kolarević - Milo Đukanović admitted in a timely manner...
* * *
Timeliness of the USA in the case of Miodrag Daka Davidović looks like this:
- From 1991 to 1992, Davidović was the Minister of Trade in the government of the self-proclaimed Serbian Autonomous Oblast (SAO) in Bosnia and Herzegovina - according to the Office for the Control of Foreign Assets of the US Department of Finance.
It is, everyone in Montenegro knows that for thirty-odd years, but it has not been explained what it has to do with property.
And what it had to do with politics, the USA knows best, because it was in their military base that the SAO became the Republika Srpska, i.e. the country by which the statehood of Bosnia and Herzegovina was killed...
- For decades, he has been laundering money for criminal groups, strengthening his influence and shaping his criminal enterprise that deals in cigarette, oil and weapons smuggling in Montenegro - it could be an office explanation if three details from the field did not escape.
First, in the early nineties, smuggling flowed in reverse order - weapons, oil, and only then cigarettes.
Second, that smuggling was state business, and the then Montenegrin prime minister was in charge of state affairs.
The third disputed detail is the ignoring of the well-founded suspicion that at that time the Prime Minister's brother was involved in the smuggling of at least two of the three mentioned goods.
But he legalized his business more than ten years ago?
It is possible, just as there is a possibility that Davidović did it as well, it is not difficult to check...
* * *
The continuation of the factual description from the American indictment also deserves a check, but a drastically more thorough one:
- His corrupt activities enabled Russia's efforts to compromise the independence of the country's democratic institutions and judiciary, including efforts to influence election results?!
Why the exclamation point?
Well, because in order to compromise Montenegrin institutions - and especially judicial ones - Russia's secret connections with Davidović were not necessary at all.
They are compromised enough while the USA, for two full decades, publicly supported the former regime whose head was the only functioning Montenegrin institution until three years ago.
During that time, Russia was a model for that regime, which - surrounded by American support - harnessed all its capacities not only to compromise, but also to destroy all institutions...
The second reason is actually the question: which elections did Russia influence through Davidović.
Is it on the national ones from August 2020? The results of which the USA not only recognized but also welcomed with undisguised joy...
Or to the local ones, a year later? On the eve of which Davidović first went to war with Putin's best friend Vučić, and then because of that at the polls he was punished by voting - a single councilor...
* * *
A whole week passes, no answers to these or other questions...
And I was keenly interested in why, out of all the controversial Montenegrin businessmen, Mićunović and Davidović were chosen for sanctions...
And why do they suspect both of them of enabling "malign Russian influence" when on this matter - as their elders from both nations would say - they can't even mix soups...
And what goal does the USA want to achieve... Because if it is the one stated by their ambassador - "to support peace, stability and the fundamental functioning of democratic institutions in Montenegro" - then sanctions should have been introduced much earlier.
In conclusion with 2020, and not only on two accounts...
PS The dialogue that follows is with two orders... Collaborator: "The Court of Appeal overturned the coup d'état verdict"... Medenica: "I know, their mother is a... Chetnik"... The prize question is: Is she supreme the judge cursed her mother once to her colleagues from the Court of Appeal or to the convicted leaders of the Democratic Front? Or to all as many of us as there are in Montenegro, but for an extended period of time...
Bonus video:
