BUDVA, Montenegro: Tiny Montenegro will take a huge step toward integrating with the West when it becomes the 29th member of NATO this week, but it risks paying a heavy price for spurning Russia.
For nearly a decade after Montenegro split from Serbia in 2006, Moscow cultivated close ties with the former Yugoslav republic, and money poured in from Russian investors and tourists.
It was a love affair underpinned not just by commercial and diplomatic logic but also by historic, religious and linguistic ties between the two Slav countries.
“Back in 2006 Montenegro was advertised as a desirable destination for Russians, because it is a beautiful country and an Orthodox Christian one,” said Vadim Verhovski, a Russian investment banker who, with partners, has invested €25 million ($28 million) to buy land near the coastal town of Budva.
Now the romance has turned to rancour. Montenegro blamed Russia for an alleged plot to assassinate its prime minister last October which officials said was aimed at blocking its entry to NATO. The Kremlin called that absurd.
In April, Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova warned of a “surge of anti-Russian hysteria” in Montenegro.
The chill is hitting tourism: latest available data, for March, showed Russians accounted for 7.3 percent of all tourist overnight stays that month compared to nearly 30 percent in March 2014 and 19.2 percent in March 2016.
Advertising hoardings in Russian, promoting luxury apartments with views of the Adriatic, were once ubiquitous along the coastal highway. Now they have vanished, and Russian-language signs have largely disappeared from shops.
Prime Minister Dusko Markovic said a recent Russian ban on imports of wine from Montenegro was linked to its NATO membership. Moscow said it had discovered banned pesticides in the wine.
“We are prepared for any decision (by Russia) and nothing is going to deter us from the path we decided to take,” Markovic told reporters.
In an e-mailed statement to Reuters, he said: “The Balkans for centuries has been the scene of a struggle between the West and the East. Like other states in the region, Montenegro has strong links with the East, but in the 2006 we made a key decision that we would like to adopt Western standards and values.”
Handy Location
For a country of just 650,000 people with 2,000 military personnel and an area smaller than Connecticut, Montenegro has strategic value out of proportion to its size.
Its dramatic Adriatic coastline, the source of its appeal to tourists, is also attractive in strategic terms because of its easy access to the Mediterranean.
A former senior government official, who declined to be named, said Moscow made an official request in September 2013 to use the Montenegrin port of Bar as a naval logistics base en route to Syria. After pressure from NATO, the government declined.
“The strategic position of our country is important (to NATO) and especially the Adriatic Sea,” Markovic said.
When the alliance welcomes Montenegro at its summit in Brussels on Wednesday and Thursday, it will mark its first expansion since neighbors Albania and Croatia joined in 2009.
The country is surrounded by NATO members or hopefuls, except for Serbia, which maintains military neutrality.
“Montenegro may be small, but its presence at the NATO summit as a new member is a message to the Western Balkans to show (that) the path toward Europe is open,” a senior NATO official told Reuters. “It is also a message to Donald Trump that NATO is growing, it has new friends.”
Divisive Issue
Still, NATO is a divisive issue among Montenegro’s own people. Many see Russia as a historic friend — a traditional ally against the Ottoman Empire, and the first nation to establish diplomatic relations with Montenegro in 1711.
Many remember a 1999 NATO bombing raid that killed 10 people in Montenegro, part of a wider intervention by the alliance to end Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic’s campaign of ethnic cleansing in Kosovo.
“A vast majority (of people) supports Russia, you cannot exclude emotions,” said Dragan Krapovic, mayor of Budva, which counts around 1,000 Russians in a population of 16,000.
“Russia supported Montenegro’s independence referendum, and many people invested money after that. Now they feel cheated,” he said.
Since the October election, Montenegro has been in political paralysis, with all opposition parties boycotting parliament. Some analysts fear that NATO membership could deepen the crisis.
“The move could even prove to be destabilising from a domestic perspective, given deep societal divisions on the subject,” said James Sawyer of the Eurasia Group, a political risk consultancy.
“The good governance reforms that are supposed in theory to be part of the NATO accession process have largely been cosmetic, while many other important reforms remain to be done.”
Verhovski, the Russian investor, bought 13 hectares of land south of Budva a decade ago, to build a tourist complex including a hotel and villas. Bogged down by the process of getting permits, he has yet to lay a single brick, but he hopes to finally start construction this year.
“There is a lot of potential in Montenegro for investment in infrastructure, for example, or ski resorts. Montenegro has a lot to offer. And we hope that with NATO membership it will become more predictable for investors,” he said.
“Russians will continue to come to Montenegro. Maybe in the short run less Russians will come, but in the long run I believe they will continue to come. Where else they would go?”
End of the affair: Montenegro jilts Russia by joining NATO
End of the affair: Montenegro jilts Russia by joining NATO
India downgrades ties with Pakistan after attack on Kashmir tourists kills 26
- New Delhi suspends key water sharing treaty, and closes only land border crossing
- Pakistan prime ministers calls meeting Thursday to discuss response
SRINAGAR/NEW DELHI: India announced a raft of measures to downgrade its ties with Pakistan on Wednesday, a day after suspected militants killed 26 men at a tourist destination in Kashmir in the worst attack on civilians in the country in nearly two decades.
Diplomatic ties between the nuclear-armed South Asian neighbors were weak even before the latest measures were announced as Pakistan had expelled India’s envoy and not posted its own ambassador in New Delhi after India revoked the special status of Kashmir in 2019.
Pakistan had also halted its main train service to India and banned Indian films, seeking to exert diplomatic pressure.
Tuesday’s attack is seen as a setback to what Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party have projected as a major achievement in revoking the semi-autonomous status Jammu and Kashmir enjoyed and bringing peace and development to the long-troubled Muslim-majority region.
On Wednesday, Indian Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri told a media briefing that the cross-border involvement in the Kashmir attack was underscored at a special security cabinet meeting, prompting it to act against Pakistan.
He said New Delhi would immediately suspend the 1960 Indus Waters Treaty “until Pakistan credibly and irrevocably abjures its support for cross-border terrorism.”
The treaty, mediated by the World Bank, split the Indus River and its tributaries between the neighbors and regulated the sharing of water. It had so far withstood even wars between the neighbors.
Pakistan is heavily dependent on water flowing downstream from this river system from Indian Kashmir for its hydropower and irrigation needs. Suspending the treaty would allow India to deny Pakistan its share of the waters.
India also closed the only open land border crossing point between the two countries and said that those who have crossed into India can return through the point before May 1.
With no direct flights operating between the two countries, the move severs all transport links between them.
Pakistani nationals will not be permitted to travel to India under special South Asian visas, all such existing visas were canceled and Pakistanis in India under such visas had 48 hours to leave, Misri said.
All defense advisers in the Pakistani mission in New Delhi were declared persona non grata and given a week to leave. India will pull out its own defense advisers in Pakistan and also reduce staff size at its mission in Islamabad to 30 from 55, Misri said.
“The CCS reviewed the overall security situation and directed all forces to maintain high vigil,” Misri, the most senior diplomat in the foreign ministry, said referring to the security cabinet.
“It resolved that the perpetrators of the attack will be brought to justice and their sponsors held to account...India will be unrelenting in the pursuit of those who have committed acts of terror, or conspired to make them possible,” he said.
There was no immediate response to the Indian announcement from Pakistan’s Foreign Office.
Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has called a meeting of the National Security Committee on Thursday morning to respond to the Indian government’s statement, Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar posted on X.
Tourist boom
India’s response came a day after the attack in the Baisaran Valley in the Pahalgam area of the scenic, Himalayan federal territory of Jammu and Kashmir.
The region has been at the heart of India-Pakistan animosity for decades and the site of multiple wars, insurgency and diplomatic standoffs.
The dead included 25 Indians and one Nepalese national and at least 17 people were also injured in the shooting that took place on Tuesday.
It was the worst attack on civilians in India since the 2008 Mumbai shootings, and shattered the relative calm in Kashmir, where tourism has boomed as an anti-India insurgency has waned in recent years.
A little-known militant group, the “Kashmir Resistance,” claimed responsibility for the attack in a social media message. It expressed discontent that more than 85,000 “outsiders” had been settled in the region, spurring a “demographic change.”
Indian security agencies say Kashmir Resistance, also known as The Resistance Front, is a front for Pakistan-based militant organizations such as Lashkar-e-Taiba and Hizbul Mujahideen.
Pakistan denies accusations that it supports militant violence in Kashmir and says it only provides moral, political and diplomatic support to the insurgency there.
“We are concerned at the loss of tourists’ lives,” Pakistani foreign ministry spokesperson Shafqat Ali Khan said in a statement earlier on Wednesday. “We extend our condolences to the near ones of the deceased and wish the injured a speedy recovery.”
Setback to Modi
In Kashmir, security forces rushed to the Pahalgam area and began combing the forests there in search of the attackers.
Police also released sketches of three of the four suspected attackers, who were dressed in traditional long shirts and loose trousers and one of them was wearing a bodycam, one security source said.
There were about 1,000 tourists and about 300 local service providers and workers in the valley when the attack took place, he said.
On Wednesday, the federal territory shut down in protest against the attack on tourists, whose rising numbers have helped the local economy.
Protesters turned out in several locations shouting slogans such as “Stop killing innocents,” “Tourists are our lives,” “It is an attack on us.”
“I want to say to the people of the country that we are ashamed, Kashmir is ashamed,” former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti said. “We are standing with you in this time of crisis.”
Airlines were operating extra flights through Wednesday from Srinagar, the summer capital of the territory, as visitors were rushing out of the region, officials said.
Militant violence has afflicted Kashmir, claimed in full but ruled in part by both Hindu-majority India and Islamic Pakistan, since the anti-Indian insurgency began in 1989. Tens of thousands of people have been killed, although violence has tapered off in recent years.
A dozen states sue the Trump administration to stop tariff policy
- The suit asks the court to declare the tariffs to be illegal, and to block government agencies
NEW YORK: A dozen states sued the Trump administration in the US Court of International Trade in New York on Wednesday to stop its tariff policy, saying it is unlawful and has brought chaos to the American economy.
The lawsuit said the policy put in place by President Donald Trump has left the national trade policy subject to Trump’s “whims rather than the sound exercise of lawful authority.”
It challenged Trump’s claim that he could arbitrarily impose tariffs based on the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. The suit asks the court to declare the tariffs to be illegal, and to block government agencies and its officers from enforcing them.
A message sent to the Justice Department for comment was not immediately returned.
The states listed as plaintiffs in the lawsuit were Oregon, Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Minnesota, Nevada, New Mexico, New York and Vermont.
In a release, Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes called Trump’s tariff scheme “insane.”
She said it was “not only economically reckless — it is illegal.”
The lawsuit maintained that only Congress has the power to impose tariffs and that the president can only invoke the International Emergency Economic Powers Act when an emergency presents an “unusual and extraordinary threat” from abroad.
“By claiming the authority to impose immense and ever-changing tariffs on whatever goods entering the United States he chooses, for whatever reason he finds convenient to declare an emergency, the President has upended the constitutional order and brought chaos to the American economy,” the lawsuit said.
Last week, California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, sued the Trump administration in US District Court in the Northern District of California over the tariff policy, saying his state could lose billions of dollars in revenue as the largest importer in the country.
White House spokesperson Kush Desai responded to Newsom’s lawsuit, saying the Trump administration “remains committed to addressing this national emergency that’s decimating America’s industries and leaving our workers behind with every tool at our disposal, from tariffs to negotiations.”
Palestinian student remains detained in Vermont with a hearing set for next week
- In court documents, the government argues that Mahdawi’s detention is a “constitutionally valid aspect of the deportation process”
- Mahdawi is still scheduled for a hearing date in immigration court in Louisiana on May 1, his attorneys said
BURLINGTON, Vermont: A large crowd of supporters and advocates gathered outside a Vermont courthouse Wednesday to support a Palestinian man who led protests against the war in Gaza as a student at Columbia University and was arrested during an interview about finalizing his US citizenship.
Mohsen Mahdawi, a legal permanent resident for 10 years, was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents on April 14. He made an initial court appearance Wednesday during which a judge extended a temporary order keeping Mahdawi in Vermont and scheduled a hearing for next week.
Mahdawi’s lawyers say he was detained in retaliation for his speech advocating for Palestinian human rights.
“What the government provided thus far only establishes that the only basis they have to currently detaining him in the manner they did is his lawful speech,” attorney Luna Droubi said after the hearing. “We intend on being back in one week’s time to free Mohsen.”
In court documents, the government argues that Mahdawi’s detention is a “constitutionally valid aspect of the deportation process” and that district courts are barred from hearing challenges to how and when such proceedings are begun.
“District courts play no role in that process. Consequently, this Court lacks jurisdiction over Petitioner’s claims, which are all, at bottom, challenges to removal proceedings,” wrote Michael Drescher, Vermont’s acting US attorney.
According to his lawyers, Mahdawi had answered questions and signed a document that he was willing to defend the US Constitution and laws of the nation. They said masked ICE agents then entered the interview room, shackled Mahdawi, and put him in a car.
“What we’re seeing here is unprecedented where they are so hellbent on detaining students from good universities in our country,” attorney Cyrus Mehta said. “These are not hardened criminals. These are people who have not been charged with any crime, they have also not been charged under any of the other deportation provisions of the Immigration Act.”
Mahdawi is still scheduled for a hearing date in immigration court in Louisiana on May 1, his attorneys said. His notice to appear says he is removable under the Immigration and Nationality Act because the Secretary of State has determined his presence and activities “would have serious adverse foreign policy consequences and would compromise a compelling US foreign policy interest.”
Last month, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the State Department was revoking visas held by visitors who were acting counter to national interests, including some who protested Israel’s war in Gaza and those who face criminal charges.
According to the court filing, Mahdawi was born in a refugee camp in the West Bank and moved to the United States in 2014. He recently completed coursework at Columbia and was expected to graduate in May before beginning a master’s degree program there in the fall.
As a student, Mahdawi was an outspoken critic of Israel’s military campaign in Gaza and organized campus protests until March 2024.
US Sen. Peter Welch of Vermont, a Democrat, met with Mahdaw i on Monday at the prison and posted a video account of their conversation on X. Mahdawi said he was “in good hands.” He said his work is centered on peacemaking and that his empathy extends beyond the Palestinian people to Jews and to the Israelis.
“I’m staying positive by reassuring myself in the ability of justice and the deep belief of democracy,” Mahdawi said in Welch’s video. “This is the reason I wanted to become a citizen of this country, because I believe in the principles of this country.”
Mahdawi’s attorney read a statement from him outside the courthouse Wednesday in which he urged supporters to “stay positive and believe in the inevitability of justice.”
“This hearing is part of the system of democracy, it prevents a tyrant from having unchecked power,” he wrote. “I am in prison, but I am not imprisoned.”
Meanwhile, the government is appealing a decision by a different Vermont judge who said another detained student, Rumeysa Ozturk of Tufts University, should be returned to Vermont.
On Tuesday, members of Congress from Massachusetts traveled to Louisiana to meet with Ozturk and Columbia University student Mahmoud Khalil. US Sen. Ed Markey and US Reps. Ayanna Pressley and Jim McGovern expressed concern at a news conference Wednesday that the students, as well as other detainees, were being deprived of nutritious meals, sleep and blankets in the cold facilities.
Khalil and Ozturk have not committed any crimes, the delegation said — they are being unlawfully detained for exercising their right to free speech.
“They are being targeted and imprisoned because of their political views,” McGovern said.
Trump plans to exempt carmakers from some tariffs, FT reports
US President Donald Trump is planning to spare carmakers from some tariffs, The Financial Times reported on Wednesday, citing two people with knowledge of the matter.
Car parts would be exempted from tariffs that are being imposed on imports from China over fentanyl and tariffs levied on steel and aluminum, the report added.
The owner of a Dominican nightclub whose roof collapsed, killing 232, speaks for the first time
- Espaillat told a reporter with El Día news program that employees had added new plasterboard to the roof hours before the collapse
- “We always bought plasterboard. Always,” said Espaillat, who spoke in a subdued manner throughout the nearly one-hour interview
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico: A roof that collapsed at a popular nightclub in the Dominican Republic and killed 232 people this month had filtration problems for decades and had been repeatedly fixed with plasterboard, according to its owner.
Antonio Espaillat, who also serves as manager of the Jet Set nightclub in the Dominican capital of Santo Domingo, spoke with local TV station Telesistema on Wednesday in his first interview since the April 8 disaster.
Espaillat told a reporter with El Día news program that employees had added new plasterboard to the roof hours before the collapse.
He noted that plasterboard had fallen repeatedly throughout the years for reasons including water that filtered through the club’s air conditioning units. However, Espaillat said no one ever inspected the roof or water filtrations.
“We always bought plasterboard. Always,” said Espaillat, who spoke in a subdued manner throughout the nearly one-hour interview.
A spokeswoman for Espaillat did not return a message for comment seeking an interview with him.
Espaillat said he learned about the collapse when his sister called him from underneath the debris, trapped along with hundreds of others attending a concert by beloved merengue singer Rubby Pérez, who was among those killed.
“To the families of the victims, I want to say I’m sorry. I’m very sorry,” Espaillat said. “I am completely destroyed.”
‘We were all surprised’
Espaillat said he was 6 years old when his mother founded the legendary club 52 years ago. The club later moved to a space occupied by a shuttered movie theater and remained in that location for 30 years until the collapse.
He said there were six air-conditioning units on the roof, plus three water tanks. An electric plant was installed in an adjacent room, not on the roof, he added.
Every six to eight years, a specialized crew would waterproof the roof, with the last waterproofing done about a month before the collapse, he said.
The heavy woofers that boomed music at Jet Set, known for its merengue parties held every Monday, were on the floor, he said.
Espaillat said if there was something he could have done to avoid the collapse, he would have done it.
“There was no warning, nothing. We were all surprised,” he said.
‘I’m going to face everything’
The Dominican government has created a committee that includes local and international experts tasked with investigating the collapse.
About 515 people were at Jet Set when the roof fell on the crowd, according to Espaillat.
In the 53 hours following the disaster, crews rescued 189 survivors. Dozens of others were hospitalized.
The 232 victims include seven doctors; a retired UN official; former MLB players Octavio Dotel and Tony Enrique Blanco Cabrera; and Nelsy Cruz, the governor of Montecristi province and sister of seven-time Major League Baseball All-Star Nelson Cruz,
At least three lawsuits have been filed.
Espaillat, who said he usually attended Jet Set’s Monday merengue parties, was in Las Vegas for a convention when his sister called.
“How can a roof collapse?” he recalled wondering as he flew back to the Dominican Republic.
Espaillat said he did not immediately visit the site upon arriving because officials worried about his safety, noting that people at the scene were angry.
He said he hasn’t slept much since the disaster, and that he has talked to the families of his employees and some of the victim’s relatives.
“I’m going to face everything,” he said. “I’m not going anywhere.”
An ongoing investigation
The investigation into what caused the collapse could take a couple of months and has raised questions about the safety of infrastructure across Santo Domingo and beyond.
There is currently no government agency tasked with inspecting the buildings of private businesses in the Dominican Republic, although President Luis Abinader announced last week that new legislation is expected to change that.
Yamil Castillo, a structural engineer and vice president of the Society of Engineers of Puerto Rico, said water leaks can be extremely damaging and should be taken care of immediately.
Castillo, who is not involved in investigating the collapse, warned that water seeping into the different materials that compose a roof can weigh it down, in addition to whatever else is placed on the roof, including air conditioning units.
Salty air also cause corrosion and roof damage, he said.
“Those leaks should have been fixed,” Castillo said, adding that replacing the plasterboard was not enough.
