My name is Ion Todescu. I’m Bucharest-based freelance journalist, worked at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 2007-2013  and with leading Romanian newspapers e.g Adevarul etc. Now I’m the owner of well-known personal blog (drakulablog.com). Today I’ve written an interesting piece about the future of Montenegrin leader Milo Djukanovic: 

Djukanovic to be Jailed after Montenegro Joins NATO

Montenegro, the small Balkan state, is once again in the center of public attention now. In fact, the same man has been ruling that country since 1991 as the Prime Minister, the President and the Prime Minister again. He’s often called the last dictator in Europe; corruptionist and mafioso are his other names. Let me introduce to you Milo Djukanovic, the Prime Minister of Montenegro.

Once Montenegro had got its independence from Serbia it was put under soft governance of the U.S. and the West European countries that seemed to freeze the position of pieces on the Montenegrin political chessboard.

However, some facts show that the situation is going to change. As it’s known from a document of Ilija Dakovic, the Montenegrin military representative to NATO, Milo Djukanovic will be jailed and Milica Pejanovic-Djurisic, the acting Defense Minister, will take his place about a year after the country will have joined the NATO. She’s obviously aware of the fact and I believe she’s forming her own team now.

Here’s Dakovic’s report to the Defense Minister with a note ‘Urgent’ as of July 16, 2015: “Our reliable source doesn’t exclude that M.Djukanovic will be removed from power and put on trial for corruption and abuse of power about a year after Montenegro’s NATO integration. The acting Defense Minister is a most likely Djukanovic’s successor”.

I wonder if the Prime Minister is aware of the fact that he’s moving closer to the end of his political career while pushing Montenegro to the NATO integration. Though, he can hardly change anything in any case. Due to his numerous criminal records the only thing left is to follow the course dictated from Washington.

In the 90s Montenegro was a center of crime business of cigarette smuggling. The Italian prosecution office gathered a lot of evidence of Djukanovic’s guilt. The detailed report took 409 pages. Prosecutor Giuseppe Scelsi named Milo Djukanovic as a boss of Montenegrin mafia.

The criminal case against Djukanovic is still open in Italy up to now and Interpol got a request on his detention long ago. That’s why the protocol service of Montenegro’s administration has to coordinate every Djukanovic’s foreign visit with the law enforcement authorities of a receiving country.

A lot of truth seekers who tried to stop Djukanovic were killed. For example, journalist Dusko Jovanovic, the editor-in-chief of Montenegrin newspaper Dan, was killed in front of his office in 2004. Mr. Ivo Pukanic, the editor of Croatian magazine National, was blown up in his car in 2008. Both of them were holding their own journalistic investigations against Djukanovic.

The Court of Southern District of New York held in 2001 that Djukanovic and his sister Ana Kolarevic were involved in a corruption scheme during the privatization of Montenegrin telecommunication company Telekom Crne Gore A.D. Investigative bodies clarified that Djukanovic’s family concluded four fake contracts with Magyar Telecom and received about €7.35 million as a result.

During a long period of ruling Djukanovic and his relatives took control over main economic sectors of Montenegro.

Prime Minister Djukanovic is 100% shareholder of Capital Invest company that distributes credits from overseas investors. Djukanovic and his compadre Vuko Rajkovic are owners of Global Montenegro Investment Company. Moreover, Djukanovic holds 25% of stocks of Donja Gorica private university in Podgorica.

Milo’s wife Lidia and his brother Aco are 100 % shareholders of First Bank of Montenegro (Prva banka Crne Gore). By the way, many government members have multimillion credits in this Bank.

It’s worth mentioning that Djukanovic core capital is about €1.2 billion and these funds are located in the U.S. banks. Djukanovic’s nephew Emin Kolarevic manages his funds via three special consulting companies.

Criminal background like that makes Djukanovic is the black sheep among NATO member states’ leaders. And he is not a welcome guest in their community for sure. But the U.S. strongly supports Milo; he is very loyal and he promises to bring Montenegro into NATO. That’s the answer why he’s been in power for overt 20 years.

It appears that the accession of Montenegro to NATO in defiance of the people’s will be the last corruption-related crime of a man known as Milo Djukanovic.