Good morning! Montenegro experienced the culmination of a hacker attack on its information infrastructure on Fridayꓼ Herceg Novi dawned in another country on Saturday morning; while the Government is in an unprecedented political crisis, the prime minister drives a speedboat at the Bojana river and dances with his head at festivals.
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Montenegro under attack
While I was leaving Montenegro for Kosovo on Friday, at the gas station in Rozaje, the worker asked me to be patient when issuing the invoice, because their systems were under hacker attacks. Many of us had a similar experience that day at various places. In addition, the state administration has been on alert for possible attacks and data theft for a few days now. We still do not know the consequences of the attack, we are receiving conflicting information, whether part of the data was lost or not. The National Security Agency said that Russian services were behind the attack. NATO also responded. Some private agencies have also issued guidelines on online behavior to prevent future attacks. In short, the advice boils down to not opening suspicious mails and suspicious links.
While we are waiting for more information from the Government about who carried out the attacks, when and how, and until we get a concrete assessment of the damage, we can imagine how professional the people who protect us from such threats are. Bearing in mind the dominance of parties in staffing in the public administration, I am afraid that we have not progressed far in this field, either.
Patriarch’s visit or a show of force?
On Saturday morning, Herceg Novi dawned with Serbian flags and billboards welcoming the Patriarch of Serbia to the “Serbian Boka”. The false ambassador did not miss this opportunity to provoke, even though his presence was ignored on the website of the Serbian embassy and on its social media posts. The Patriarch took pictures with party-affiliated airport employees, and then took a speedboat to Herceg Novi. Last night, the Prime Minister also organized a dinner for him.
The Patriarch’s visit served Andrija Mandic and other Serbian politicians and other public speakers to continue promoting the narrative aimed at the disintegration of Montenegrin identity and statehood. Emphasizing that Boka is not Montenegro and that nothing but Cetinje and four districts is Montenegro is part of the communication strategy of the Serbian Orthodox Church in Montenegro and is very dangerous for the already damaged social cohesion in our country.
The phenomenon of Serbian television
DPS, 21. Maj Civic Initiative and the Old Royal Capital Cetinje reacted to Pink TV’s report broadcast by Serbian presenter Jovana Jeremic in the morning show, which dealt with the recent tragedy in Cetinje and spread misinformation on the subject of the tragedy.
The Agency for Electronic Media also responded. 21. Maj also demanded the cessation of broadcasting of Pink TV for one year.
Earlier, I personally and 21. Maj proposed sanctioning individuals from Serbia for exactly this type of action.
I think that Jovana Jeremic, along with many others from Serbia, long ago qualified for a ban on entering Montenegro as a minimum. Instead, the Municipality of Budva pays for her vacations in Budva, and Budvanksa Rivijera uses her as a model for the promotion of its hotels.
That’s it for today. We wish you a pleasant rest of the day.
Kind regards,
Ljubomir Filipovic, CdM analyst
