Good morning! The president was in Albania, where together with other leaders of the Western Balkans he met the Ukrainian president and offered for Ukrainian soldiers to be medically treated in Montenegro. Is our support sincere, or are our politicians just paying for their security and remaining in power?
Click here to join our Viber group, where we update you live from hour to hour and answer your questions directly.
Is Milatovic’s support for Ukraine truthful?
The leaders of the Western Balkan countries met with the President of Ukraine yesterday in Tirana. The meeting was not announced and no one knew anything about it until Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic’s slip of the tongue in an interview. That’s when Ukrainian journalists learned about their president’s trip to Tirana. Caution is never enough when you are at war with a regime that is prepared for whatever it takes.
Americans call fake support for someone and something that is popular to support “virtue signaling”. This is how our president “signals virtue”, while it is clear to all of us that deep down, he feels a closeness to Putin and his regime and feels contempt for the West. Both him and many others in the ruling coalition.
Like all other little Vucics, Milatovic is trying to play by publicly supporting Ukraine, while doing everything to signal to Putin that they are also loyal to him.
Thus, the head of the service for relations with the citizens of the City of Podgorica, with whom Jakov is in a coalition, sends his young people to the youth propaganda summit in Moscow. Putin-Jugend gathers and Dajkovic sends his young men and women to join. But it’s not just Dajkovic. You remember how Abazovic promoted the launch of the first Montenegrin satellite into space. This is what we use Russian resources for. Instead of directing those young people to the European Space Agency or India or America, we put them open to the Russian influence in the middle of the war.
Even then, we are surprised that public opinion surveys show anti-Western sentiment and affection for Vladimir Putin. Not in numbers like in Serbia, but if we continue like this, we will go in that direction.
While vodka factories are opening and sheltering people with dubious backgrounds, nobody cares about ordinary people and opposition activists from Russia and Belarus. Or LGBT people from those countries who are denied asylum, for example.
There are positive examples in this government, but if it is dominated by Mandic and Knezevic, as well as Dajkovic and Vranes, then we will be off the world.
Sincere support for Ukraine could only be seen on the streets of Montenegro, namely in Cetinje and Budva on the anniversary of the attack on this country. In Cetinje, citizens of Cetinje organized a walk in support of Ukraine, while Russian, Belarusian and Ukrainian activists gathered in Budva. It is interesting that the resistance to Putin’s madness is now being mobilized in two communities – among the people of Cetinje and refugees and immigrants in Montenegro.
Truth be told, the other side got tired as well. Since Dritan left power, those from the brotherhoods and the Night Wolves no longer gather to support “brother Putin in his fight for world justice”. They were probably hired at management positions and got some comfortable employments, so they no longer wish to be at war, either.
That’s it for today. We wish you a pleasant rest of the day.
Kind regards,
Ljubomir Filipovic, CdM analyst and columnist
(The opinions and views of the authors of the columns are not necessarily those of the CdM editorial staff)
