Good morning! Civic activist Aleksandar Dragicevic published over the weekend the complete banking documentation of PES and all payments they made from their founding until the end of 2024. What were the motives, and what could we see in these documents?
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PES’s toxic ex
Aleksandar Dragicevic has been present on the public scene for about 7–8 years. He stood out for his quick thinking, mobility, and readiness to always be at the centre of events. His primary focus is environmental protection, but he has gradually moved into other areas of Montenegrin society and politics that require public attention and oversight. Although at times he has lost his way, such as with the Sinjajevina issue and his former praise of Milan Knezevic, he seemed to be genuinely doing what he believed in, sometimes appearing, like many of us, as a “useful idiot” for someone else’s agenda. I naively and romantically viewed him that way until the situation with Turkish immigrants last autumn, when Dragicevic significantly contributed to fueling anti-Turkish sentiment in a way similar to the far-right in Europe. After the campaign he participated in led to arson attacks and assaults on Turks, he went to film the burned-down premises and expressed shock, without ever feeling the need to apologise for what he had done.
Dragicevic is politically independent and sometimes supports individuals and organisations. However, he most directly supported PES at its founding, when he wore his best sky-blue suit to the founding congress of Spajic’s party. Then, after the departure of Milatovic and Milovic, he became disillusioned as well.
I don’t know what the real reason is—whether it is a principled split or something trivial like Spajic not replying to a text message—but the relationship broke down and Aleksandar is now aggressively attacking and dismantling PES. He seems obsessively focused on bringing down PES or staging a takeover and installing people he and his circle prefer. I believe it is more likely the latter, as he has favourites and publicly praises certain state-owned companies and organisations led by PES officials.
In this split with PES, Dragicevic did something positive. He published PES financial records via MANS’s excellent public access service. By the way, through MANS you can request freedom of information if you don’t have the resources or time to do it yourself, which is very useful.
So, Aleksandar requested PES information and published it. He promised to request information for other parties as well, but so far—nothing. He has not yet had disputes with them. It was claimed that traces of payments to a “bot network” would be found. I briefly looked at the document A.D. shared. It consists of over a thousand pages of financial reports, including personal data of many individuals, as well as legal entities to which PES paid or from which it received money.
I did not see major mass payments to individuals, but I did notice that the largest payments went to a major media company that PES is currently in conflict with.
All in all, it is good that this was published. The important thing is that we do not stop here. As for bots, trolls, and online activists—did that not bother Dragicevic and his circle during the religious procession protests? I know some Twitter users who, after 30 August, became officials in various parties because of their online activism. So, it is a bit unpleasant to criticise people who occasionally received a few hundred euros, or who work for a salary as part of the PR activities of every political party in Montenegro.
That is all for today. Have a pleasant rest of the day.
Kind regards,
Ljubomir Filipovic, CdM analyst and columnist
(Columnists’ views and opinions do not necessarily reflect those of the CdM editorial team)
