Montenegro: Politics & Current Events

Tomche Makedonche · 02-20-2017, 06:06 PM

http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/arti...ons-02-14-2017

Montenegro Opposition to Boycott Poll Over ‘Coup’ Claims

Montenegro’s opposition has decided to boycott local elections in the country’s second city, Niksic, over an attempt to prosecute two opposition MPs suspected of involvement in an alleged coup plot.

The opposition announced its boycott ahead of a parliamentary session on Wednesday at which Montenegrin lawmakers are expected to vote on a motion to strip two opposition leaders of their immunity from prosecution over their alleged involvement in a coup attempt on election day, October 16.

MPs are to vote on the motion filed by the Special Prosecutor for Organized Crime, Milivoje Katnic, which asks for the leaders of the pro-Russian opposition Democratic Front alliance, Andrija Mandic and Milan Knezevic, to be detained and put on trial.

The motion was approved by a Montenegrin parliamentary committee on Monday, and the ruling pro-Western coalition has a stable majority to enable it to have the decision confirmed in parliament.

But after an emergency meeting on Tuesday, all the opposition parties decided to boycott upcoming municipal polls on March 12 in Niksic, the second largest city in Montenegro, over the prosecution move to prosecute Mandic and Knezevic.

The opposition claims it has the chance to win the election in Niksic and accuses the prosecution of working in favour of former PM Milo Djukanovic's ruling Democratic Party of Socialists.

The opposition has already been boycotting parliament for over five months and refusing to recognise the results of October’s general election, alleging vote-rigging.

The vice-president of the opposition centre-left Social Democratic Party, former finance minister Rasko Konjevic, urged Montenegrin President Filip Vujanovic to withdraw the decision to hold the elections in Niksic next month.

“It would be normal that a person who should be the president of all citizens understands this decision [to boycott] and at the very least postpones the Niksic elections,” Konjevic said.

The two MPs who have been accused, Mandic and Knezevic, are the leaders of the main opposition alliance which strongly opposes the country’s NATO membership bid and advocates closer ties with Russia.

In the motion sent to parliament on Monday, the special prosecution claimed that both are suspected of "establishing a criminal organisation" and being involved in attempts to undermine "the constitutional rule and security of Montenegro".

The prosecution said that a group of Serbs, Montenegrins and Russians tried to organise a coup on election day, October 16. It claimed the security services had thwarted the coup after the arrest of 20 Serbian citizens, including a former Serbian police general, Bratislav Dikic.

Both Mandic and Knezevic have dismissed the plot allegations as false. They said on Monday they won't try to flee the country to avoid arrest.

"I have no intention of going anywhere. Those who come to arrest me must be ready for that task," Knezevic told reporters.

After returning from Belgrade late on Monday, Mandic said that everything related to the lifting of the men’s immunity was a show organised by Djukanovic.

The Democratic Front has accused the prosecutor's office acting under the influence of the still-powerful former PM.

It has said that Djukanovic is “threatening to drag Montenegro into civil war”.

“If violence becomes state policy, the answer to this could be violence,” it warned.

Responding to the accusation that the prosecution is under the political influence of the ruling Democratic Party of Socialists, the Supreme State Prosecutor, Ivica Stankovic, asked for patience and promised that all evidence on the two politicians will be presented to the court.

“The side chosen by the state prosecutors is solely the side of law and constitutional norms,” Stankovic said.

Tomche Makedonche · 03-28-2017, 07:11 PM

http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/arti...ber-03-28-2017

US Senate Approves Montenegro as NATO Member

Montenegro has moved closer to becoming a NATO member after the US Senate approved the country’s admission into the military alliance.

The US Senate approved on Tuesday a treaty allowing Montenegro to join NATO, with overwhelming majority 97 out of 100 members voting in support of a treaty.

Although the parliaments in the Netherlands and Spain are yet to vote on Podgorica's bid to join the alliance, Montenegrin government hopes the process would be completed by May when the next NATO summit is scheduled.

The Senate vote came after US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on March 21 wrote to senators urging them to ratify Montenegro's membership, saying it was "strongly in the interests of the United States".

Tillerson argued that Montenegro's membership would support the country's democratic reform, trade, security and foster stability among its neighbours.

"Montenegro's participation in the May NATO Summit as a full member, not as an observer, will send a strong signal of transatlantic unity," Tillerson wrote.

The only two ‘no’ votes in the procedural ballot on Monday came from Republican Senators Rand Paul and Mike Lee, both of whom had been blocking the progress on the vote for several months.

Paul warned Washington against spreading itself too thinly at a point when its military is involved in Iraq, Syria, Libya and Yemen.

"Montenegro in NATO will antagonise Russia while doing nothing to advance US national security," Paul said during the floor debate on Monday.

"Most Americans can't find Montenegro on a map," he added in a sharply-worded Senate speech.

"Are you willing to send your kids there to fight?" he asked.

Paul has suggested that recruiting Montenegro, which had once been a staunch Russian ally, could lead to heightened tension with Moscow, possibly even war.

Moscow strongly opposes the expansion of NATO to the east, including the Balkans, however, and the delay in US approval of Montenegro's protocol had raised doubts about whether Donald Trump's new administration was ready to stand up to Russia over the issue.

Russia’s allies and Kremlin followers in Montenegro had hoped that Trump's friendlier attitude towards Moscow could mean ratification being blocked.

Montenegro gained NATO candidate status in 2010. All 28 of NATO's members must ratify Montenegro's accession protocol before it can join the alliance.

Accession still remains a highly controversial issue inside the country. An opinion poll conducted in December 2016 had only 39.5 per cent of Montenegrins in favour of NATO membership.

tchaiku · 04-08-2017, 07:38 AM

No sea for Serbia then.

Phoenix · 05-02-2017, 09:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tchaiku

No sea for Serbia then.

No sea for Russia is the end game.

Benito · 05-03-2017, 02:11 AM

The EU and NATO are the biggest terrorists and occupiers on this planet.

Phoenix · 05-03-2017, 06:43 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Benito

The EU and NATO are the biggest terrorists and occupiers on this planet.

You forgot to mention the USA, the most destructive and evil force from the last days of WWII to the present...

Vangelovski · 05-03-2017, 07:51 AM

Global Research (Socialist Website) claims that the US has been responsible for between 20 and 30 million deaths since WWII. Maybe. They attribute culpability for a whole lot of conflicts that the US had very little to do with.

http://www.globalresearch.ca/us-has-...war-ii/5492051

According to various historians (listed in Wikipedia) the Soviet Union is estimated to have been responsible for up to 61 million deaths in its own country. Most sources state between 30 and 50 million. That's not counting its foreign interventions - in Afghanistan, the Middle East and Africa for example.

Some of these historians estimate that communist regimes have resulted in the deaths of up to 100 million of their own people. Again, that's not counting their foreign interventions.

These were mostly through forced starvation, forced labour, genocide and plain old murder. In fact, Mao believed that it was all just part of "progress".

Quote:

He [Mao] envisaged that "one-tenth of the peasants" (or about 50,000,000) "would have to be destroyed" to facilitate agrarian reform.

[Goldhagen, Daniel (2009). Worse Than War: Genocide, Eliminationism, and the Ongoing Assault on Humanity].

And he acted on it as well:

Quote:

In a secret meeting at Shanghai in 1959, Mao issued the order to procure one third of all grain from the countryside. He said: “When there is not enough to eat people starve to death. It is better to let half of the people die so that the other half can eat their fill.”

[Frank Dikötter, Mao’s Great Famine, Key Arguments].

This was a part of Mao's "Great Leap Forward" in which about 45 million Chinese died.

Well, if its for agrarian reform I suppose its ok Mao - as long as socialism wins.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_k...s#Soviet_Union

Should we add the Soviet Union and China (or communism as an insidious ideology) to the list? I think so.

Phoenix · 05-03-2017, 08:50 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Vangelovski

...Should we add the Soviet Union and China (or communism as an insidious ideology) to the list? I think so.

Of course you can add the Soviet Union and China to the list and I'm sure they have been brutal and evil in their own ways...although the veracity of those claims would need further investigation...you cannot deny that Communism was the Wests bogeyman for almost 50 years and Russia today and modern China are still tainted by Cold War propaganda...

What clearly can't be denied are the crimes of the US war machine, perpetrated on innocent people in every corner of the globe and the environmental disasters resulting from the rabid pursuit of US exceptionalism.

Remember, only the USA has nuked a civilian population, not once but on two occasions...the millions of tons of ordnance dropped on Indochina, that is still killing and maiming people today, or the defoliation of Indochina that resulted in the destruction of entire eco-systems...

Soldier of Macedon · 05-29-2017, 04:17 AM

Welcome to the club.

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/366471...r-latest-news/

Quote:

STRONG-ARM TACTICS Donald Trump sparks fury in Montenegro after ‘humiliating’ country’s prime minster by shoving him out of his way at G7 summit

27th May 2017

OUTRAGE has erupted in Montenegro after Donald Trump “humiliated” the country’s Prime Minister by shoving him out of his way at this weekend’s G7 summit. Footage of the incident – showing Trump pushing his way to the front of the pack of world leaders – went viral this week. But the response among locals was predictably furious, with viewers who watched it on local broadcaster RTCG taking to the comments section to vent their fury. According to Russian news agency TASS, one even suggested tiny Montenegro should place sanctions on the US in revenge. They wrote: “There should follow tough sanctions against America to let it know whose prime minster was pushed and humiliated.”

Skolovranec · 06-03-2017, 08:19 AM

So we can kiss goodbye to making them any sort of strategic partner then ...

Fuck our luck.

02-20-2017, 06:06 PM	#1
Tomche Makedonche Senior Member Join Date: Oct 2011 Location: Ostralija Posts: 1,123	Montenegro: Politics & Current Events http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/arti...ons-02-14-2017 Montenegro Opposition to Boycott Poll Over ‘Coup’ Claims Montenegro’s opposition has decided to boycott local elections in the country’s second city, Niksic, over an attempt to prosecute two opposition MPs suspected of involvement in an alleged coup plot. The opposition announced its boycott ahead of a parliamentary session on Wednesday at which Montenegrin lawmakers are expected to vote on a motion to strip two opposition leaders of their immunity from prosecution over their alleged involvement in a coup attempt on election day, October 16. MPs are to vote on the motion filed by the Special Prosecutor for Organized Crime, Milivoje Katnic, which asks for the leaders of the pro-Russian opposition Democratic Front alliance, Andrija Mandic and Milan Knezevic, to be detained and put on trial. The motion was approved by a Montenegrin parliamentary committee on Monday, and the ruling pro-Western coalition has a stable majority to enable it to have the decision confirmed in parliament. But after an emergency meeting on Tuesday, all the opposition parties decided to boycott upcoming municipal polls on March 12 in Niksic, the second largest city in Montenegro, over the prosecution move to prosecute Mandic and Knezevic. The opposition claims it has the chance to win the election in Niksic and accuses the prosecution of working in favour of former PM Milo Djukanovic's ruling Democratic Party of Socialists. The opposition has already been boycotting parliament for over five months and refusing to recognise the results of October’s general election, alleging vote-rigging. The vice-president of the opposition centre-left Social Democratic Party, former finance minister Rasko Konjevic, urged Montenegrin President Filip Vujanovic to withdraw the decision to hold the elections in Niksic next month. “It would be normal that a person who should be the president of all citizens understands this decision [to boycott] and at the very least postpones the Niksic elections,” Konjevic said. The two MPs who have been accused, Mandic and Knezevic, are the leaders of the main opposition alliance which strongly opposes the country’s NATO membership bid and advocates closer ties with Russia. In the motion sent to parliament on Monday, the special prosecution claimed that both are suspected of "establishing a criminal organisation" and being involved in attempts to undermine "the constitutional rule and security of Montenegro". The prosecution said that a group of Serbs, Montenegrins and Russians tried to organise a coup on election day, October 16. It claimed the security services had thwarted the coup after the arrest of 20 Serbian citizens, including a former Serbian police general, Bratislav Dikic. Both Mandic and Knezevic have dismissed the plot allegations as false. They said on Monday they won't try to flee the country to avoid arrest. "I have no intention of going anywhere. Those who come to arrest me must be ready for that task," Knezevic told reporters. After returning from Belgrade late on Monday, Mandic said that everything related to the lifting of the men’s immunity was a show organised by Djukanovic. The Democratic Front has accused the prosecutor's office acting under the influence of the still-powerful former PM. It has said that Djukanovic is “threatening to drag Montenegro into civil war”. “If violence becomes state policy, the answer to this could be violence,” it warned. Responding to the accusation that the prosecution is under the political influence of the ruling Democratic Party of Socialists, the Supreme State Prosecutor, Ivica Stankovic, asked for patience and promised that all evidence on the two politicians will be presented to the court. “The side chosen by the state prosecutors is solely the side of law and constitutional norms,” Stankovic said. __________________ “There’s a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious, makes you so sick at heart, that you can’t take part, you can’t even passively take part, and you’ve got to put your bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels, upon the levers, upon all the apparatus and you’ve got to make it stop, and you’ve got to indicate to the people who run it, to the people who own it, that unless you’re free, the machine will be prevented from working at all” - Mario Savio

03-28-2017, 07:11 PM	#2
Tomche Makedonche Senior Member Join Date: Oct 2011 Location: Ostralija Posts: 1,123	US Senate Approves Montenegro as NATO Member http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/arti...ber-03-28-2017 US Senate Approves Montenegro as NATO Member Montenegro has moved closer to becoming a NATO member after the US Senate approved the country’s admission into the military alliance. The US Senate approved on Tuesday a treaty allowing Montenegro to join NATO, with overwhelming majority 97 out of 100 members voting in support of a treaty. Although the parliaments in the Netherlands and Spain are yet to vote on Podgorica's bid to join the alliance, Montenegrin government hopes the process would be completed by May when the next NATO summit is scheduled. The Senate vote came after US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on March 21 wrote to senators urging them to ratify Montenegro's membership, saying it was "strongly in the interests of the United States". Tillerson argued that Montenegro's membership would support the country's democratic reform, trade, security and foster stability among its neighbours. "Montenegro's participation in the May NATO Summit as a full member, not as an observer, will send a strong signal of transatlantic unity," Tillerson wrote. The only two ‘no’ votes in the procedural ballot on Monday came from Republican Senators Rand Paul and Mike Lee, both of whom had been blocking the progress on the vote for several months. Paul warned Washington against spreading itself too thinly at a point when its military is involved in Iraq, Syria, Libya and Yemen. "Montenegro in NATO will antagonise Russia while doing nothing to advance US national security," Paul said during the floor debate on Monday. "Most Americans can't find Montenegro on a map," he added in a sharply-worded Senate speech. "Are you willing to send your kids there to fight?" he asked. Paul has suggested that recruiting Montenegro, which had once been a staunch Russian ally, could lead to heightened tension with Moscow, possibly even war. Moscow strongly opposes the expansion of NATO to the east, including the Balkans, however, and the delay in US approval of Montenegro's protocol had raised doubts about whether Donald Trump's new administration was ready to stand up to Russia over the issue. Russia’s allies and Kremlin followers in Montenegro had hoped that Trump's friendlier attitude towards Moscow could mean ratification being blocked. Montenegro gained NATO candidate status in 2010. All 28 of NATO's members must ratify Montenegro's accession protocol before it can join the alliance. Accession still remains a highly controversial issue inside the country. An opinion poll conducted in December 2016 had only 39.5 per cent of Montenegrins in favour of NATO membership. __________________ “There’s a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious, makes you so sick at heart, that you can’t take part, you can’t even passively take part, and you’ve got to put your bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels, upon the levers, upon all the apparatus and you’ve got to make it stop, and you’ve got to indicate to the people who run it, to the people who own it, that unless you’re free, the machine will be prevented from working at all” - Mario Savio

04-08-2017, 07:38 AM	#3
tchaiku Member Join Date: Nov 2016 Posts: 786	No sea for Serbia then.

05-03-2017, 02:11 AM	#5
Benito Junior Member Join Date: May 2015 Location: Bucharest Posts: 68	The EU and NATO are the biggest terrorists and occupiers on this planet.

06-03-2017, 08:19 AM	#10
Skolovranec Junior Member Join Date: Mar 2017 Location: Kilibargrad, Macedonian Federation (Earth-21691808) Posts: 52	So we can kiss goodbye to making them any sort of strategic partner then ... Fuck our luck.

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