by Mila Radulovic, NIN 8 September 2004
Sun, sand, and sweet deals are luring more and more Russians to invest in Montenegro.
A few days ago, the head of Montenegro's anti-money laundering bureau, Predrag Mitrovic, reminded real-estate agencies, automobile dealers, and lawyers of their duty to report any suspicious financial transactions to state authorities. Citing confidentiality restrictions, Mitrovic had prior to this refused to state whether foreign nationals and companies, especially from Russia, were investing “dirty money” in Montenegro, using it to purchase companies, hotels, houses, and land.
At the moment, reports of ever-greater Russian capital flowing into Montenegro come down to a few (rare) lines in local newspapers, indirect knowledge, and overheard conversations involving people who “see Russians buying everything they can on the Montenegrin coast,” thus forming the vanguard of the country's main industry--tourism.
“I heard my neighbor talking to a Russian who was interested in his house in Budva. When he heard that my neighbor was looking to sell for a certain price, the Russian asked, ‛Do you happen to have any more houses?’ ” a woman from Budva told NIN. Our informant claimed this kind of business is spreading in the Montenegrin tourism center.
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