Vucic’s pro-Russian partner and the minister of Republika Srpska, who are the new sanctioned by the USA?

The United States of America blacklisted ten people on Thursday as it announced the next round of economic sanctions in the Balkans.

According to the official website of the US Treasury Department, the sanctioned individuals are from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia.

Among them are Savo Cvijetinović, Petar Đokić and Duško Perović from Bosnia and Herzegovina; Miodrag Davidović and Branislav Mićunović from Montenegro; Ratka Kunoska Kamceva, Irina Samsonenko and Sergey Samsonenko from North Macedonia; and Miša Vacić and Nenad Popović from Serbia.

The latter two were also sanctioned by the US State Department in connection with Russia’s malign influence in the region and the corruption it has enabled.

Who are the new sanctioned?

Minister of Republika Srpska and Head of the RS Representation in Moscow

Petar Đokić is Minister of Energy and Mining in the government of Republika Srpska (RS) and leader of the Socialist Party there.

Since 2010, he has held various ministerial positions in the government of this entity of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

At the beginning of November, he was presented with an award in Belgrade for his services “in strengthening the friendship between the RS and Russia” on the occasion of the celebration of the Russian holiday, National Unity Day.

Duško Perović is the head of the RS representation in Moscow. He is mainly present during the visit of the President of the RS, Milorad Dodik, to the capital of Russia and during his meetings with the Russian head of state Vladimir Putin.

Đokić and Perović did not respond to RFE’s calls for comment.

Savo Cvijetinović, known by the nickname “Tiger”, is a businessman from Bijeljina, in the north-east of Bosnia-Herzegovina. He is the founder and managing director of the company “Inženjering-BN”, which was also placed on the US sanctions list.

Cvijetinović is also the head of the Serbian-Russian community “Zavet”. During the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina, he was head of the special units of the RS police.

Vucic’s coalition partner and head of the pro-Russian “Serbian Right”.

Nenad Popović, a politician from Serbia who is close to the Russian authorities, is the leader of the Serbian People’s Party – coalition partner of the ruling Serbian Progressive Party.

In the last session of the Serbian parliament, which was dissolved before the elections on December 17, he was deputy to the ruling majority.

From 2017 to 2022, he was a minister without portfolio in the Serbian government. Popovic’s party cooperates with United Russia, the party of Russian President Putin, with which it has signed several inter-party agreements.

As a minister and member of parliament, Popović had numerous meetings with Russian officials in Serbia and Russia and, since the beginning of the Russian occupation of Ukraine, has advocated that Serbia should not impose sanctions against Russia.

Miša Vacić is the leader of the ultra-right pro-Russian organization “Serbian Right”.

Vacić is on the sanctions list because, according to the statement, activities “undermine the peace, security, political stability or territorial integrity of the United States, its allies or partners” and favor the Russian government.

Since the beginning of the occupation of Ukraine, he has participated in Russia’s rallies and opposed the imposition of sanctions against that country.

Businessmen from Montenegro – one charged with murder, the other involved in war

Branislav “Brano” Mićunović from Nikšić has been associated with the construction and gambling industry in Montenegro for years, as well as with the companies “Jack Pot” and “Zeta Film”.

Near the old town of Budva, on the site of the former “Zeta Film” building, Mićunović’s company is building a twelve-storey hotel and casino with foreign partners.

Mićunović is known as a friend of former Montenegrin President Milo Đukanović. He was accused of murdering Radovan Kovačević from Nikšić in October 2000, but was acquitted in 2007 because no one identified Mićunović as the person who fired the gun, although several people were present at the murder.

Mićunović was also one of the defendants in Bari, Italy, for cigarette smuggling in the 1990s, but in 2019 the Bari court panel suspended the case against him due to the statute of limitations.

The tobacco case was opened in Montenegro in 2001, after an investigation into cigarette smuggling from Montenegro to Italy had begun in Bari in the early 1990s.

Around fifteen people from Montenegro and Italy were involved in the investigation, including Đukanovic. All were later acquitted.

Miodrag “Daka” Davidović is a businessman from Montenegro. In the early 1990s, he was chief of police in Nikšić, and during the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina he was a minister in the so-called autonomous Serbian province of Herzegovina, which was founded by the party of Radovan Karadžić, who was convicted of war crimes at the court in The Hague.

At the end of the 1990s, Davidović was also suspected of cigarette smuggling, but these allegations could never be proven.

His arrest due to financial investigations ended in 1998 with his pardon by the former President of Montenegro, Momir Bulatović, with whom he had a godfather relationship.

Davidović is one of the largest donors to the Serbian Orthodox Church, which is why he received several awards. Although he occasionally harbored political ambitions in Montenegro, Davidović lived mainly in Belgrade, from where he managed his affairs.

The owner of the Macedonian sports club and the mother of the sanctioned businessman

Sergei Samsonenko is a wealthy Russian businessman who owns Macedonian handball and soccer clubs.

Ratka Kunoska Kamceva is the mother of Macedonian businessman Orce Kamcev, who is also on the American blacklist.

Blocking of assets and transactions

As determined by the Treasury Department, all assets of persons added to the list that are located in the United States or owned or controlled by U.S. persons are frozen and must be reported to the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC).

In addition, all entities that are owned directly or indirectly, individually or in the aggregate, 50 percent or more by one or more blocked persons are blocked.

Also prohibited are any transactions by U.S. persons within the United States (or in transit to the United States) involving property or interests in the assets of designated or blocked persons, unless authorized by a general or specific license from OFAC or unless an exception applies.

In addition, financial institutions and other persons that engage in certain transactions or activities with sanctioned persons may be subject to sanctions.

/The Geopost/