Russia extended economic sanctions against Montenegro until 31 December 2018, the Russian government said. The decree was signed by President Vladimir Putin. Political analyst Dusan Janjic said he was not surprised by such a decision. He said Russia took it hard that Montenegro joined EU sanctions against it already in 2014.
Janjic said that regardless of the effects of Montenegrin sanctions against Russia being small it was a political slap in the face for Moscow. The Russian government placed a ban on importing food stuffs from the USA, EU, Canada, Austria, Kingdom of Norway, Ukraine, Albania, Montenegro, Iceland and Liechtenstein.
According to Janjic, no one should expect abolishing sanctions from both sides before an agreement within EU and NATO is reached.
“Currently Montenegro has done nothing apart from joining NATO. In addition to the sanctions posed earlier against Russia, it was considered a moral issue. It is still a political defeat of Moscow, given its poor assessment of events in Montenegro (that it is possible to stop Montenegro’s membership in NATO) and investments in people who did not justify the expectations. That’s why all those potentialities in the past elections were activated,” recalls Janjic.
