Good morning! The meme pages that swept through Montenegro in 2020, “joking” about NATO, the civic opposition, and Montenegrin identity, were far from innocent fun. One of the admins operated directly from the office of lawyer Goran Petronijevic — the defender of Karadzic, Sljivancanin, the Zemun Clan, and Milan Radoicic. Another was a former Montenegrin military officer. Today, they all work as bots for Vucic. Interesting, isn’t it?
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Montenegrin memers in the service of Vucic
At a time when Greater Serbian nationalism was trying to break Montenegro’s back, someone was systematically working to support it through mockery and viral irony. Unfortunately, it wasn’t just youthful rebellion, as the naive believed. It was a serious state-backed operation from Serbia.
By now, it’s clear — at least to those paying close attention — that some of the meme pages that fed us “humour” for years were actually propaganda projects directed from Belgrade. Pages like “Neprijatni”, “Splačinijada”, “Stari Liberal” and others weren’t harmless jokes, but well-organised influence operations — with the help of young Montenegrins, often well-educated and in influential positions. Some knowingly participated, others perhaps unknowingly.
One such figure was a well-known young chess player from Montenegro and one of the administrators of the “Neprijatni” page — a page that made it into a Serbian TV series and was praised by tabloids as “the free voice of youth.” That same person now quietly works in one of our institutions.
Even more troubling is that one of the popular meme admins operated directly out of the office of lawyer Goran Petronijevic.
And who is Goran Petronijevic?
Today, he represents Milan Radoicic, a key figure in Serbian state-linked organised crime. His most famous clients include former State Security chief Rade Markovic, Military Intelligence head Aco Tomic, and at the Hague Tribunal, he defended Veselin Sljivancanin and Radovan Karadzic. He was also the lawyer for pop star Ceca Raznatovic and members of the Zemun Clan. On television, he once publicly admitted to covering up war crimes in Kosovo while serving as a prosecutor.
This is the context behind “Neprijatni” making jokes about NATO, Montenegrin identity, and everything that opposed the interests of the Serbian Orthodox Church and Belgrade. And at the time, many people, instead of following the money trail, simply liked and shared the content — unaware that they were part of a serious hybrid operation. All this, fueled by a strong desire to see the end of the DPS government.
While these pages targeted everything civic, anti-war, and freedom-oriented in Montenegro, our journalists wrote glowing articles about them. Monitor, Vijesti, Dan — nearly all of them fell for it. One current high-ranking staff member at Gradska TV, then a journalist for Dan, even did interviews with these “sarcasm heroes.” He also informally acted as PR for local extremists during anti-NATO protests on Sinjajevina. It’s no surprise that many of these same people are now journalists for state television or PR officers at the Serbian embassy in Podgorica.
Today, those meme pages barely deal with Montenegro anymore. They’ve faded into obscurity. Because the operation succeeded. The goal in 2020 was destabilisation, regime change, undermining identity values, and helping the Serbian Orthodox Church. And it was achieved. Now, these actors have shifted their focus to Belgrade, where they are actively discrediting student protests against Vucic. Just look at “Splačinijada.” Roberto Golovic, a “retired” Montenegrin navy officer, now spends more time attacking Serbian protesters than commenting on anything in Montenegro.
Meanwhile, Montenegro’s national security agency (ANB) remains asleep — still hunting for Islamic terrorists across the country. Monitor now writes that the agency ignores extremism within the Serbian Orthodox Church, though it once praised the very extremists who were hiding behind meme page Serdars.
That’s it for today. Have a pleasant rest of your day.
Kind regards,
Ljubomir Filipovic, CdM analyst and columnist
(Columnists’ opinions and views do not necessarily reflect the views of CdM’s editorial team)
