Support for Putin and protests against him on the streets of Montenegro

After the start of the aggression against Ukraine in February last year, a series of rallies in support of the Russian army and Russian aggression were organized in Montenegro in several Montenegrin cities. At that time, the Russian extremist Vladislav Pozdnjakov was also in Montenegro and reported on these events through his telegram channels. Rallies in support of Putin were organized by members of radical Orthodox organizations, whose members also participates in the work of local branches of Russian organizations such as the Night Wolves and the Immortal Regiment. You can read more about the main financier of these activities in the past, former Russian and Montenegrin diplomat Boro Djukic, in the Shadow Diplomats research published last fall by ProPublica and the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ).

At the same time, rallies in support of Ukraine were organized, led by the Civic Initiative „21 May“, which organized and supported the rallies in Podgorica and Cetinje. In Cetinje, the historic capital of Montenegro, daily protest marches against the war were organized until the summer of last year, and the Ukrainian president personally thanked the citizens of Cetinje.

Nevertheless, despite the fact that almost all political actors except the pro-Russian Democratic Front condemned the Russian aggression against Ukraine, the fact that a minority of people in Montenegro is ready to take to the streets and support Ukraine cannot be ignored.

On the other hand, the Democratic Front, whose support in the elections is growing, and which have become part of the government in most Montenegrin cities, has a growing activist base, which agilely and promptly organizes gatherings in support of Putin’s aggression.

In Budva, a city on the Montenegrin coast, where the largest community of refugees from Ukraine and emigrants from Russia and Belarus currently resides, the pro-Russian Democratic Front is in power, and the mayor himself and his closest associates were often guests of parades in Moscow. Also, in the last couple of years, they have been visited by guests from the Russian extremist party Rodina, whose leader is Dimitri Rogozin.

That’s why it is not surprising that recently, during the scheduled guest appearance and concert of the Belarusian-Ukrainian band Lyapis Trubetskoy in Budva, a protest was organized against the concert, and a series of threats were made to the owners of the disco where the concert was to be held. The concert was cancelled, followed by a fierce reaction from the Embassy of Ukraine, but the state remained silent on these methods of intimidation.

Protests and campaigns of intimidation of Ukrainians and Russian opposition activists are led by the pro-Serbian and pro-Russian information site IN4S and their most famous journalist, Igor Damjanovic, who often stays in the occupied territory of Ukraine from where he spreads false and propaganda narratives about the situation in that country and promotes hate and discrimination narratives about Ukrainians. Damjanovic often publishes photos with Chechen fighters and officials as well as officials of the occupation authorities in Donetsk and Luhansk.

In Montenegro, Damjanovic, with the help of the Association of Journalists of Montenegro and the support of the city administrations of the cities where the DF participates in the government, organizes showings of his films and reports from the battlefield. The Association of Journalists of Montenegro recently awarded the late Daria Dugina and the Serbian newsroom of Sputnik, about which the head of Russian propaganda, Margarita Simonyan, wrote on her Telegram channel.

On the other hand, along with the Ukrainian embassy and activists in Montenegro, the loudest in condemning the aggression against Ukraine are the Russian emigrants, who are increasingly loudly and articulately explaining to the Montenegrin and world public why the regime in their country is something that should not be supported and should be fought against. . That is why in Budva, where the local population is protesting in support of Putin, on Saturday the Russian community organized a large protest against the invasion of Ukraine. The main message from those protests is that the Russian authorities immediately stop military operations and leave the territory of Ukraine. /Ljubomir Filipovic for The Geopost/