Two billion for ships, helicopters, canards... What does Croatia demand from Montenegro and by what calculation?

Croatia's claim that Montenegro owes it over two billion US dollars based on the succession of movable military property of the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY) relates largely to the weapons and equipment of the former Yugoslav Navy (JRN).

During the 1991-92 war, these assets were withdrawn from Croatian ports to the territory of the newly established Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY), which consisted of Serbia and Montenegro.

Last week, Zagreb sent a protest note to Podgorica over the Ministry of Defense's decision to produce badges featuring the training ship "Jadran", stating that, according to Croatia, it represents part of the country's military property. They then announced a detailed analysis of the entire military succession, claiming that Montenegro owes Croatia two billion dollars.

The Croatian Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs (MVEP) claims that they have "extensive documentation" about the amount of the claim, but they did not want to say which property is in question. The Montenegrin Ministry of Defense also did not respond to "Vijesti" to which property the alleged debt relates.

The Croatian "Večernji list" announced that, in addition to the ship "Jadran", part of the succession mass of military property is also four Canadian aircraft carriers that Montenegro "took" in 1991.

The YRM fleet was financed by all republics.

According to calculations by Croatian experts that "Vijesti" had access to, out of the total estimated value of all weapons and military equipment of the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, which, according to them, were worth two billion dollars in 1991, assets worth around 1,5 billion ended up in the FRY at that time.

The YRM fleet, its resources and weapons were not financed only by Croatia, but by the entire former Yugoslavia through defense allocations. According to calculations by Croatian experts, from 1971 to 1990, Montenegro covered an average of 1,9 percent of the total defense expenditures of the SFRY, while Croatia covered 26,8 percent of the military budget of the former Yugoslavia, and Serbia 36 percent.

Despite these figures, when it comes to financing, as much as 89 percent of all JRM personnel during the former SFRY were stationed on the territory of Croatia, and 11 percent in Montenegro.

No warships or naval units were based on the territories of Slovenia or Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), even though they also had access to the Adriatic Sea and financed the defense of the SFRY.

Incidentally, 84,3 percent of the entire Yugoslav Navy Fleet left Croatia in 1991-92, at the express request of the Croatian state leadership and after combat operations in the territory of that former Yugoslav republic, and moved to the territory of present-day Montenegro. Most of these ships and weapons have been either sold or cut into scrap metal in the past 30 years, and only about ten of these vessels are still "alive" in Montenegro today, most of which are out of operational use in the Navy of the Armed Forces of Montenegro.

15,7 percent of the JRM ships remained in Croatia in the form of several captured or ships that were under repair or damaged in combat operations. Croatia thus acquired, among other things, two missile boats, one torpedo boat, a missile gunboat, a small submarine, a submarine rescue ship, a hydrographic ship, as well as four patrol boats, two minesweepers and a dozen smaller and auxiliary vessels.

At the slipway at the Krakjevica shipyard, in the final phase of construction, the most modern JRM ship at the time remained, the new missile gunboat RTPO-411 "Sergej Mašera", which was completed a few years later and incorporated into the Croatian Navy as RTOP-11 "Kralj Petar Krešimir".

In addition, in the hands of Croatia, at the 85th Naval Technical Missile Base in Žrnovnica near Split, remained a complete contingent of about 50 then state-of-the-art and newly acquired new Swedish-made RBS-15B anti-ship missiles, which were to be armed with the new “Sergey Mashera” class missile gunboats, as well as 180 RZ-13 anti-aircraft missiles for the Soviet ship-based SA-N-4 “osa-M” air defense missile system, which was armed with the “Split” and “Kotor” type JRM frigates.

Canadians transferred to Belgrade, sold by Serbia

Among the assets that, according to them, Croatia is demanding from Montenegro today, experts from Zagreb have included four CL-215 "Canader" firefighting aircraft, which in 1991 were part of the 676th Firefighting Squadron of the Yugoslav Air Force (JRV) based in Zemunik near Zadar.

With the outbreak of war in the former SFRY, these aircraft were transferred from their base in Croatia to Belgrade, formally included in the JAT fleet, only to be sold to Greece a few years later by the former Serbian and federal authorities of the FRY. Until October 1995, these four Canadairs lay unused at Belgrade's Surčin airport, and then they were secretly transferred to Greece under false Czech registrations. According to media reports, the Greeks received four fully operational Canadairs, 8,4 spare engines for these aircraft, and over 13 pieces of various equipment and spare parts for them for just $3,5 million.

The assets of the former 784th Anti-Submarine Squadron of the JRV are also being sought in the form of anti-submarine helicopters "Kamov Ka-25PL", "Kamov Ka-28" and "Mil Mi-14PL", which were based in Divulje near Spit during the SFRY.

With the outbreak of war and the abandonment of Croatia by the JNA forces, these helicopters were transferred first to Tivat and Podgorica, and later to Belgrade, where most of them are still located in the Aviation Museum in Surčin.

Croatia is demanding from Montenegro the monetary equivalent of these ships, aircraft and other weapons from 1991, even though a good part of these assets were not on its territory at the time it declared independence on October 8, 1991.

Annex A of the Agreement on the Succession of the SFRY, signed in Vienna in 2001 by the successor states (FRY, Croatia, North Macedonia, Slovenia and Bosnia and Herzegovina), regulates the issue of inheritance of movable and immovable property of the former state.

The Agreement states that the movable tangible state property of the SFRY, which was located on the territory of that country, will be transferred to the successor state on whose territory it was located on the day it declared independence.

It is stated that the movable tangible state property of the SFRY, which represented part of the military property, will be subject to special arrangements to be agreed upon between the interested successors.

The legal personality and continuity of the FRY, which was a signatory and bound by this agreement, was inherited by Serbia after Montenegro gained independence in 2006.

Officials in Zagreb have announced on several occasions in recent years that of all the assets of the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, they are only interested in the training ship "Jadran".

That sailboat, a veteran from 1933 and the then Royal Yugoslav Navy, which they claim is a "stolen Croatian ship" and, threatening to block Montenegro's access route to the EU, insist that Montenegro, in whose possession the "Jadran" is, hand over this valuable old-timer sailboat at all costs.