This is one of the consequences of the war in Ukraine: lately, the coast of Montenegro has taken on the false air of Sochi on the Adriatic.
This is surprising when you walk around Montenegro. In the streets or in the cafes of Budva, one of the big cities on the Montenegrin coast, we have heard almost only Russian spoken in recent months. On the walls, there are even posters for concerts by Russian artists, all written in the language of Pushkin.
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In Montenegro, the Russian presence and influence are quite old, since the authorities have long favored tourism and investments from Russia, particularly in luxury boating. But since February 24, 2022, the number of Russian citizens in the country has literally exploded. According to Interior Ministry figures, more than 200,000 have entered Montenegro since the invasion of Ukraine.
20,000 to have obtained a residence permit in Montenegro
Many of these Russians seek to flee the regime of Vladimir Putin, and to settle in the country. First there was a first wave of arrivals last spring and a second after the Russian president decreed partial mobilization in September. You should know that Russians, but also Belarusians, do not need a visa to enter Montenegro, and they can therefore arrive directly at the airport via Turkey.
Today, more than 20,000 of them have obtained a residence permit in the country, and they are getting organized in their new life as exiles. Private schools, for example, have opened on the Adriatic coast to educate their children, like those of Mila. In Moscow, this 37-year-old mother was the manager of a performance hall popular with the alternative scene.
This room was closed by the Russian authorities, and its walls tagged with the letter Z. Since November, Mila and her family have been trying to rebuild their lives in a seaside resort in Montenegro. In their neighborhood, all the houses are rented by Russian or Belarusian families: “Here we can stay with a residence permit, which gives us opportunities. And the new school where our children go has offered me to become their artistic manager and organize events here. Thanks to this work, I could get an extended residence permit and look at things more stable.”
Ukrainian refugees welcome in the country
These thousands of new installations. They will lead to profound changes for this small country of only 620,000 inhabitants. Especially since Montenegro, which condemned the Russian invasion, also hosts many Ukrainian refugees. For the moment, these demographic changes, they are not really the priority of the Montenegrin leaders, and on the side of the population, we are shown to be rather benevolent towards these Russian exiles.
“I absolutely support them.explains Maja Raicevic, a local civil society figure. I want Montenegro to be an open country that accepts people of other nationalities, and that cultivates a certain multiculturalism.” According to data collected by the European Union Agency for Asylum, Ukrainian refugees alone represent nearly 5% of the country’s population.