Zvincuk expelled from Montenegro, lands in Belgrade

Russian military blogger Mikhail Zvincuk, founder of the Telegram channel Rybar, landed at Belgrade airport on October 10, a day after Montenegrin police detained him and four other Russian citizens in Risan and expelled them from the country the same day. For Serbia this is not just someone else’s affair: Zvincuk told reporters that he and his associates will stay in Belgrade for a few days and have not yet bought tickets to Moscow. He is on the European Union sanctions list, and the entry and transit ban the Union imposed on him applies in its member states, which Serbia is not.

In Podgorica, meanwhile, the question is no longer only who was expelled, but how he got in at all.

What did Montenegrin police say about Risan?

The Montenegrin Police Directorate said the operation was carried out in cooperation with the National Security Agency (ANB) and with the support of international partners. Five Russian citizens had their stay revoked and received expulsion decisions on grounds of national and internal security. Montenegro did not say which country they are being sent to.

According to the Podgorica daily Vijesti, as relayed by Telegraf, the decisions were served on Zvincuk, his wife Valerija, Sergej Belous, Pavel Lekatorcuk and Kira Dorosenko. Police say they entered Montenegro two days before being detained and stayed at a hotel in Risan, in the municipality of Kotor; Index reports that it was less than two days earlier. Officers seized a drone, cameras including a GoPro, high-resolution digital equipment and several mobile phones, and police announced a forensic examination of the equipment.

Prime Minister Milojko Spajic commented on X, as relayed by RTS:

“We will not disclose what has to remain within the domain of the security services.”

Spajic added that attempts at hybrid action against Montenegro’s European path are constant, and that the institutions are doing their job.

What is Jakov Milatovic’s office demanding?

The office of Montenegrin President Jakov Milatovic asked the security institutions to establish how Zvincuk entered the country and stayed in it, whether the authorities knew of his arrival, and whether there was any communication with partner services. It also wants the Defense and Security Council to be informed. Montenegro aligns its policy with EU restrictive measures, so for the president’s office a sanctioned person in a coastal hotel is a question of procedure.

In a statement, the office also acknowledged the limit of that request: “We understand that certain information, for the sake of protecting national security, cannot be available to the public.”

What does Zvincuk claim, and what does the Metropolitanate say?

Zvincuk says the group came from Bosnia and Herzegovina, where they had been filming about Austria-Hungary, to shoot in Montenegro about the church and Russophilia, as one of three historical documentaries. In his version, police and the ANB approached them early in the morning in a parking lot, searched them without a warrant and questioned them separately. The only question, he claims, was whether they recruit foreigners for the war in Ukraine.

“At the police station they questioned each of us separately and forbade us from communicating with one another,” Zvincuk told reporters at Belgrade airport, as relayed by Telegraf. He added that he will hire a lawyer.

Rybar claims an official request was sent for filming at Cetinje Monastery. The Metropolitanate of Montenegro and the Littoral confirms that the request arrived on the evening of October 8, through a messaging app and outside working hours, so it had no chance to consider it. Its statement reads: “None of the persons mentioned is known to us from before, nor did we have any earlier communication.”

Zvincuk also said that “many” people in the police told him they were uncomfortable with the job they do: “Associates of the Montenegrin police and the ANB, many of them, told me, and it was visible, that they are uncomfortable with the work they do.” This is his own statement, and the Montenegrin services have not commented on it.

Who is Zvincuk, and what does Moscow say?

The European Union imposed an entry and transit ban on him over activities that threaten Ukraine’s territorial integrity and sovereignty. Zvincuk claims these are only economic sanctions. Index reports that the United States wants him over election interference and offers 10 million dollars for information about him and his associates. The paper Pobjeda, citing security sources, claims he is a colonel in Russian military intelligence, the GRU; this has not been officially confirmed.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told TASS: “Our diplomats will establish the reasons for the arrest and, as in the case of every Russian citizen, will protect his rights.”

Dmitry Medvedev, deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council, wrote on Telegram that a “hunt” for Russians has begun in Europe and that Moscow could expand the list of detained Europeans and Americans for the purpose of an exchange.

None of those statements answers the question posed by Milatovic’s office: how a sanctioned Russian entered the country, and whether the services knew of his arrival.