WORLD NEWS FOR MONTENEGRO DIASPORA
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After the Prime Minister in technical mandate, Dritan Abazović, suddenly and without rational explanation, ordered the immediate return of the chargé d'affaires from Washington, London and Priština, and the ambassador to the Mission of Montenegro to the UN in New York, a few days later, just as quickly, he sent three chargé d'affaires jobs - in Washington Nebojš Todorović, in Tirana Đorđe Janković and in Zagreb Damir Grbović.
As Abazović took over the Ministry of Foreign Affairs after the dismissal of Ranko Krivokapić, he decided to take advantage of the newly created position and quickly change people in the diplomatic network and appoint "his own people".
And that through the classic abuse of the Law on Foreign Affairs, as in the case of the appointment of Nebojsa Todorović.
According to information from Pobjeda, Todorović has never worked in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, nor does he have any diplomatic experience.
Previously, he was a member of the Democratic Party of Socialists, and for a time, as a party staff member, he was assigned to the Ministry of Health, as an assistant from 2008 to 2012, and later as the State Secretary for Health Economics. He was also one of the officials in the DPS of the Capital City.
After the "historical changes" in August 2020, apparently Todorović, formerly a strong member of Depees, decided to change sides, forget about his career within the Democratic Party of Socialists and turn to "new challenges".
He has been in Washington since yesterday and is supposed to take over the position of chargé d'affaires of the Embassy of Montenegro in Washington - even though he has no experience in diplomacy.
When appointing Todorović to the position of head of the Embassy of Montenegro in the USA, the Prime Minister in the technical mandate previously referred to Article 72 of the Law on Foreign Affairs on the establishment of relations without public announcement.
In which, in paragraph one, it is explicitly written: "When the needs of diplomatic affairs justify it, the Minister of Foreign Affairs can, without public announcement, issue a decision on the establishment of an employment relationship with a person with appropriate experience in scientific and research work, significant diplomatic experience, professional titles and skill or experience in working in international and other organizations".
As Todorović, a former employee of the Ministry of Health, but also in the municipality of Podgorica, does not have "significant diplomatic experience", it is obvious that Abazović and his advisor for foreign policy, Đorđe Radulović, took care to strengthen Ura, the party of which Abazović is the president, counting on thus, to strengthen the party by bringing in a man whose political involvement has so far been linked to the Democratic Party of Socialists.
Truth be told, Todorović once, in 2019, in a text on Portal Analitika explained Moscow's imperial policy towards the Western Balkans in detail and very critically, but certainly that this was not decisive for his diplomatic engagement. Insiders claim that he was recently, through his connections across the Atlantic, "at the service" of Abazović and provided him with an invitation to a meeting of an American organization, but it was not possible to verify this information from several sources.
By the decision of Dritan Abazović, the ambassador in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Damir Grbović, was appointed as the new-old chargé d'affaires in Zagreb.
Unlike Todorović, he has an interesting diplomatic path. At one time, as a staff member close to the Bosniak party, during the time of the Government of Igor Lukšić, he was appointed ambassador to Switzerland and Liechtenstein, where he remained until the end of his mandate, in September 2020.
Interestingly, the change of government did not affect Grbović's career much, although he was a diplomatic representative of Montenegro during the "old government". The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Đorđe Radulović, during the mandate of Prime Minister Zdravko Krivokapić, appointed Grbović as the temporary chargé d'affaires in Croatia.
However, when Krivokapić's government fell and Dritan Abazović's minority government was elected, the new foreign minister Ranko Krivokapić returned Grbović back to Podgorica.
"Luck" smiled on Grbović after Prime Minister Abazović was dismissed, after the dismissal of Minister Krivokapić, and he left staffing in the MFA to his advisor Radulović. And, well, as of a few days ago, Grbović was sent back to Zagreb and is once again the chargé d'affaires at the Embassy?!
It is not known whether he became very close to Uri in the meantime, but Damir Grbović showed an enviable talent for navigating new situations, from the time of the DPS, the rule of the "apostle" to the outgoing Government of Dritan Abazović.
If Todorović is a classic pattern of how "flyovers" get positions in government, and Grbović is an indicator of how he swims in the waters of various authorities, the appointment of Đorđe Janković as chargé d'affaires in Tirana, instead of the former diplomat Mirsad Bibović, is easy to explain.
Simple: loyalty to the boss pays off - Janković was the head of the cabinet of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Đorđe Radulović, and he carried out his superior's orders to the end.
Pobjeda wrote in June of this year that the Appeals Commission of the Government of Montenegro annulled several disputed decisions of the legal service of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs made during the mandate of Minister Đorđe Radulović, now an advisor to Prime Minister Dritan Abazović.
Thus, for example, the Commission "acquitted" Dalibor Đurović of all charges, who at one time was returned from the mandate of the 3rd secretary in Bucharest, after he was baselessly and recklessly accused of submitting to the public for inspection Radulović's shameful non-paper, in which she had falsified events at the Belvedere on September 4 and 5, 2021.
The commission then established that through a rigged competition, Minister Radulović, through his chief of staff Đorđe Janković, State Secretary Ljubomir Mišurović and the undersecretary, "set up" to recall the Montenegrin diplomat in Ljubljana and wanted them to send their favorite.
As one of the main executors of Radulović's policy in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Janković was on "white bread", but his persistence paid off: as he was promised, after the dismissal of Ranko Krivokapić from the position of Minister of Foreign Affairs, Janković again became,, desirable staff". At the suggestion of adviser Radulović, Prime Minister Abazović appointed him and he is already serving as chargé d'affaires in Tirana.
In just twenty days, the prime minister in his technical mandate made a "transtubation" within the Montenegrin diplomatic network at his discretion and guided solely by party and personal motives.
Pobjeda wrote that on November 7, Abazović sent the chargé d'affaires - Bojan Šarkić in London, Veljko Milonjić in Washington, Mirsad Bibović in Priština, and Ivana Pajević, the ambassador at the Mission of Montenegro to the United Nations in New York - with decisions about an urgent return to the country. as of November 21st, even though they were only posted a few weeks ago!
And the prime minister did not think about how much his moves in Montenegrin diplomacy would degrade the already shaken reputation of Montenegro. The fall of his own government did not disturb him: after there was a political impasse in the negotiations of the "old" majority, after Ura caused a delay in the proposal for his mandate and as Đukanović rejected the proposal to appoint Miodrag Lekić, Abazović saw in everything a chance to take control of the entire executive branch.
I.B.
