Montenegro refuses to transfer frozen Russian assets to Ukraine

Milan Knezevic, the head of the Committee on Security and Defence of the Montenegrin Parliament, insisted that the transfer to Ukraine of Russian assets frozen in the territory of Montenegro was not a possibility.

“I rule out this possibility. This is contrary to the constitution, Montenegrin laws and EU norms”, Knezevic replied when asked if there was any possibility that the frozen Russian assets would be transferred to Kyiv. This “will not happen” in Montenegro he stressed.

Commenting on his appeal to the Constitutional Court of Montenegro to assess the legality of freezing the assets and property of citizens of the Russian Federation, Knezevic noted that he is currently waiting for a response. “I hope that in a few weeks, we will receive it. For now, 44 properties have been frozen, which were owned by 34 Russian citizens”.

The deputy noted that due to anti-Russian measures, Podgorica has already lost a lot economically. Since there are no longer any direct flights between Montenegro and the Russian Federation, there are no tourists and investments from Russia on the scale there was before. 

“The majority of foreign tourists have always been from Russia, and in terms of investments, it ranked second last year”, Knezhevich recalled. 

“Russia has been our ally and protector for a century. I can say that it formed our state after the Berlin Congress, and for a long time, the Russian state, headed by Tsar Nicholas II, was our protector. This remained in the memory of the Montenegrin people”.

Knezevic stressed that Montenegro loves the Russian people and hopes that by the end of the conflict in Ukraine, relations between the two countries will become better. The MP pointed out that in his opinion, Podgorica; “should take a neutral position” in the conflict between Russia and Ukraine.

Sourse:  euroweeklynews