The US “Blacklist” and the Balkans: A Nine Days’ Wonder

One of the key US instruments, the list of undesirable persons known as the “blacklist”, has become part of everyday life in the Balkans. Politicians, businesspeople and tycoons are the targets of this popular American “disciplinary measure”. But whether it has brought results is another question.

Over more than two decades, more than a dozen politicians, businesspeople and members of the judiciary from Macedonia, alone or “in a package” with their families, have ended up on the US blacklist. Most of them are banned from entering the United States. The latest update to the State Department list concerns Artan Grubi and his immediate family, and judge Enver Bedzheti. They were banned from entering the US, and Washington announced possible further sanctions. The former deputy prime minister and senior DUI party official was named together with Enver Bedzheti, a current judge at the Court of Appeal, for corruption involving bribes to influence court proceedings related to the criminal conviction of Sasho Mijalkov, a powerful figure from the Gruevski era, who is also on the US blacklist.

The ultimate goal of sanctions is not punishment but encouraging positive changes in behaviour, according to a statement by the US Department of the Treasury from April 2022, when Svetozar Marović – former president of the state union of Serbia and Montenegro and former vice-president of the Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS), now a fugitive – was added to the US sanctions list. This statement perhaps best shows that being blacklisted usually has only a political, not a substantive, impact on individuals and companies.

The US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has put several Montenegrin citizens on the sanctions list over the past ten years over serious allegations of corruption, organised crime and malign Russian influence. However, none of them has suffered significant consequences.

In Bosnia and Herzegovina, too, in the last 10 years alone more than 60 people have been put on the US Treasury sanctions list for violating the Dayton Agreement, undermining state institutions, crime and corruption, and threatening peace and stability in the region. Most of them are officials, and in Republika Srpska. The President of Republika Srpska, Milorad Dodik, has twice been on the US sanctions list. He was first sanctioned in January 2017 for obstructing the implementation of the Dayton Peace Agreement. OFAC’s decision at the time stated that it allowed US authorities to block Dodik’s access to any of his property under US jurisdiction. The decision also prohibited US persons from carrying out transactions with him.

In Albania, too, most of the people on the US blacklist are “high-profile” and often politicians. They include former MP Aqif Rakipi, Ylli Ndroqi, owner of TV Ora, and the leader of the Democratic opposition, Sali Berisha, who was publicly designated in 2021 for involvement in corruption.

But what happens after being blacklisted? What happens to these people, and do they suffer any repercussions? The Central Bank of Montenegro (CBCG), which is responsible for overseeing the implementation of the Law on Restrictive Measures, says there are no Montenegrin citizens under restrictive measures that financial institutions in Montenegro are obliged to observe.

“The sanctions lists of the US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) serve financial institutions outside the US for additional checks in the form of risk monitoring of the persons with whom they enter into or have established business relations, and, depending on the assessment, they take measures and actions against them in line with their internal policies,” says Nikola Bašanović, one of the bank’s sector directors.

The lists of so-called designated persons from the Balkans are quite long, and even deceased people can be “found” on them. In Montenegro, the US “blacklist” currently includes the late Branislav Mićunović, the fugitive Svetozar Marović, Miodrag Daka Davidović, Sergei Kokorev and his company International Business Corporation Bar, and the companies of Naser Kelmendi and his family in Montenegro – the company Donata and the Casa Grande hotel in Ulcinj. The sanctions include blocking all their property in the US, or property and companies controlled by people close to them in that country. Marović was added in 2022, and Mićunović and Davidović in 2023, while the others have been on the list since earlier. How much the blacklist affects their lives is best illustrated by the fact that Marović’s lawyer, Zdravko Begović, did not even know that his client was on the list. In a conversation with our journalist, he said that he and Marović don’t even talk about it.

Almost a decade ago, Marović reached a plea deal with the prosecution and admitted to corruption charges as mayor of Budva. He was sentenced to three years and nine months in prison and paid around one million euros, but fled to Serbia before starting to serve his sentence. He then obtained Serbian citizenship, and the Serbian authorities have for years ignored Montenegro’s requests to extradite him to serve his sentence.

Laundering money for decades, and no one “saw”

In November 2023 the US Treasury announced that Miodrag “Daka” Davidović was on the list because he “has laundered money for criminal syndicates for decades, building a criminal empire based on smuggling cigarettes, oil and weapons in Montenegro”. He was also, it added, involved in the scandal that led to the arrest of the Secretary-General of the Government of North Macedonia, Dragi Rashkovski.

Montenegro’s Special State Prosecutor’s Office did not answer whether it had launched proceedings against Miodrag Daka Davidović or Sergei Kokorev and, if so, at what stage they are and for what crimes they are charged.

Davidović also did not answer questions about whether being on the US blacklist had affected his life and business. That Davidović suffered no consequences from the sanctions is also shown by his unhindered participation in the tender to buy the Nikšić steelworks.

Branislav “Brano” Mićunović was blacklisted in 2023, accused of being “for decades one of the leading figures of organised crime in Montenegro”. He was a co-owner and owner of several companies in the gambling and construction businesses in Montenegro. He died in April last year but is still on the US list. Montenegro’s Vijesti reported that the assets of his company Zeta Film have doubled since 2022.

Naser Kelmendi, his family and their companies were blacklisted back in 2015. The US Treasury said at the time that Kelmendi was recognised as a drug lord who had been involved in criminal activities in the Balkans for more than 35 years, with a network of associates across Europe.

The 2015 statement added that his organisation ran a drug distribution network stretching from Afghanistan to Turkey and Europe, primarily selling heroin but also smuggling cocaine and ecstasy. The US decision also covered Kelmendi’s four children – Besnik, Elvis, Donata and Liridon – “for supporting his drug trafficking activities or acting on his behalf”.

Several Montenegrins are on the list of sanctions imposed in relation to Serbia, among them Radovan Karadžić’s brother, Luka Karadžić.

In Macedonia, besides former deputy prime minister Artan Grubi and judge Enver Bedzheti, the blacklist also includes former Special Public Prosecutor Katica Janeva and the mayor of Skopje’s Karposh municipality, Stevche Jakimovski. Janeva was behind bars when she learned she had been put on the State Department blacklist and banned from entering the US. Regarding the former special prosecutor, it was stated that there was credible information that she had solicited and accepted bribes to influence the prosecution. Besides Janeva, her immediate family is also on the US blacklist. As for the mayor, the explanation was that he had been involved in corruption. But this did not jeopardise his political career, and he is currently serving his fourth term as mayor of Karposh, one of Skopje’s key municipalities.

Another former deputy prime minister and business heavyweight is on the blacklist in Macedonia – Kocho Angjushev – “kept company” there by his wife and two children. The reason, according to the US, is involvement in corruption while he held office in the government. In 2021 Angjushev was appointed honorary consul of Malta, but after the US blacklisted him, the Maltese Ministry of Foreign Affairs revoked the title. That is the only repercussion he has felt.

Asked whether US blacklists are effective or just a kind of message to local authorities, the director of the Macedonian Center for International Cooperation (MCIC), Aleksandar Krzhalovski, says it is a combination of “a bit of both”. However, he believes that blacklists in North Macedonia have no particular effect.

“As the embassy itself says, this is an indication from their research and checks, and a direction or recommendation for local judicial authorities to act and check what they can do,” he says. The problem, Krzhalovski adds, is that it usually comes after the end of political terms, not while those things are being done.

“By then it’s too late; years pass before some of those things are checked, and there are no effects from it all,” he believes.

Offensive against Dodik

In Bosnia and Herzegovina, meanwhile, the net was tightening around Milorad Dodik’s associates. Sanctions were imposed on Nikola Špirić, a senior official in Dodik’s party, for involvement in corruption. The same decision also sanctioned his wife, son and daughter. In 2020 sanctions were also imposed on Amir Zukić, then an official of the SDA (Party of Democratic Action), also for involvement in corruption.

Half a year later, in January 2022, an “offensive” of US sanctions began against Dodik, his family and “Dodik’s support network”. On 5 January 2022, sanctions against Dodik were extended “for corrupt activities and threats to the stability of BiH”. Besides Dodik, sanctions were also imposed on Alternativna Televizija from Banja Luka, whose ownership links it to Milorad Dodik – more precisely, it is under his control. The sanctions decision stated that all their property and property rights located in the US were blocked.

On the same day, Dodik’s then adviser and former president of the High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Milan Tegeltija, was also sanctioned by the State Department, as were his wife Tijana and the president of the PDA (Movement for Democratic Action), Mirsad Kukić (who has since died). Tegeltija was said to have used his position to obtain benefits in exchange for interfering in judicial proceedings and manipulating appointments to judicial positions and hiring for other public positions.

In April 2022, the US blacklist also included Asim Sarajlić, a senior SDA official and then MP, and Gordana Tadić, former Chief Prosecutor of the Prosecutor’s Office of BiH, as well as members of their families. The reason given was that they threatened the stability of the region through corruption and crime. In June the same year, the then President of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Marinko Čavara, and the then Republika Srpska Minister of Health, Alen Šeranić, were added to the sanctions list for “undermining the Dayton Peace Agreement and the democratic institutions of BiH”.

In September 2022, the then State Prosecutor of BiH, Diana Kajmaković, was added to the sanctions list for “continuously undermining democracy and the rule of law in Bosnia and Herzegovina”. The explanation stated that she “is a flagrant example of a corrupt BiH state prosecutor linked to criminal organisations”.

Bosnia and Herzegovina seems to top the Balkan list of those sanctioned by the US, with several dozen more prime ministers and ministers on it – for example, Prime Minister Fadil Novalić, members of the BiH Presidency, Republika Srpska prime ministers and ministers named as Dodik’s accomplices, intelligence chiefs, drug traffickers and so on.

The latest in the series of sanctions, practically in the last days of Biden’s term as US President, were announced in January this year and concerned Republika Srpska officials such as Interior Minister Siniša Karan, Constitutional Court President Džerard Selman and others, all for “anti-Dayton behaviour, corruption or other actions that destabilise or threaten the territorial integrity of Bosnia and Herzegovina”.

It should be stressed that the tightening of sanctions based on the US President’s executive order in the past year in BiH was followed by banks closing the accounts of sanctioned individuals and companies.

Sali Berisha angry at Soros

According to our media partners from Albania, the total number of people on blacklists there is 22. Interestingly, all of them, including those who were active in political life when the sanctions were announced, continued to perform their functions unhindered. Even those who were later charged and convicted by the courts, such as public prosecutor Adriatik Llaĉi and the mayor of Durrës, Vangjush Dako, faced repercussions not because they were blacklisted by the US, but for entirely different cases related to their public functions or their wealth.

The example of Sali Berisha is one of the most illustrative. Lulzim Basha, then leader of the Democratic Party, decided to expel Berisha from the party’s parliamentary group because he was on the US blacklist. This caused an internal party conflict and a split, but three years later the party reunited, and this year Berisha is running for parliament as leader of the Democratic Party.

At the time, Berisha blamed Soros for the US decision.

“My designation as ‘non grata’ is the work of Soros, aimed at helping the government of Edi Rama, which is the most corrupt in Europe, harming the Albanian opposition and tarnishing its 30-year legacy,” he said.

But the public outside Berisha’s orbit does not accept his arguments.

“I believe the blacklist has had effects. They may seem immeasurable, but they are visible. For example, in the case of Mr Berisha – politicians of his calibre, those who have led a country as prime minister or president, spend half their time thinking about their political legacy. Ending your career on a blacklist is a stain no one wants on their political biography,” says Afrim Krasniqi, executive director of the Institute for Political Studies in Albania – an NGO that monitors corruption in institutions.

Because he was blacklisted, Tom Doshi, former chairman of the Social Democratic Party of Albania, also took a break from politics, but four years later he is back again and has entered the race for the parliamentary elections in May this year.

At the same time, in Albania there have also been indictments after people were blacklisted. Such is the case of Prosecutor General Adriatik Llaĉi, who was sentenced to prison, fled, but was arrested by Interpol in Rome and handed over to the Albanian authorities, and the case of former Durrës mayor Vangjush Dako, who received a prison sentence but escaped it because of procedural errors and is now under house arrest.

Eugen Beçi, a former prosecutor for serious crimes in Albania, says the blacklist has an impact and is not just symbolic but also practical, because it guides voters and often serves as a very effective tool for addressing issues that domestic law enforcement institutions are unable to deal with.

“But to open a criminal investigation, much more substantial evidence is needed than just the opinion or position of a foreign state. Still, it can certainly serve as a significant reason to focus legal mechanisms on enabling a criminal case to be opened,” Beçi stressed.

In Macedonia, the US blacklist became part of the political and legal debate on whether it could be the basis for state measures. There were calls to restrict the economic and political activities of sanctioned persons – for example, banning individuals from running for public office, or banning companies from deals with the state such as taking part in tenders. But the new government believes there are sufficiently good procedures within the system for prosecuting such crimes.

Our interviewee, lawyer Zvonko Davidovikj, takes the same line.

“Our legal framework is sufficient. The problem is that we don’t apply the laws. Prison sentences and confiscation of property are provided for, but the problem is that the executive conducts everything in the judiciary and the legislature. The US blacklists have no influence at all: the people on them continue to work, live, prosper and increase their wealth, and many of them have actively taken part in decisions concerning the state,” Davidovikj believes.

This is precisely the case with Macedonian businessman Kocho Angjushev. Last October he even appeared at a public event together with the Minister of Education, where he spoke about what kind of staff the country needs.

The prosecution claims it is conducting proceedings against everyone on the blacklists. But there is no court outcome.

“There were proceedings against Kocho Angjushev, but with the amendments to the Criminal Code many of the cases we were prosecuting collapsed. We will do what we can, but it’s hard to secure evidence,” Macedonia’s Chief Public Prosecutor, Ljupcho Kocevski, said recently.

It is similar with another powerful figure, Ramiz Merko, the mayor of Struga, who is on the blacklist together with his family. Prompted by the blacklisting, nine proceedings for various crimes are being conducted against him, yet he is still mayor. His son Genc Merko, who is also on the US blacklist, obtained a licence to open a Faculty of Medicine under the previous government, in which his party DUI was a coalition partner, but the current government revoked it.

The list also includes Nikola Gruevski, prime minister from 2006 to 2016, and his cousin, then head of the secret service, Sasho Mijalkov, together with their families. But apart from Gruevski having to flee and living in asylum in Hungary to avoid domestic justice, neither has faced significant repercussions, and Mijalkov did not properly answer to domestic law even for serious crimes, because after partly serving his prison sentence he became a free citizen – “thanks” also to the amendments to the Criminal Code that toppled justice in Macedonia.

Nor did the blacklist “blacken” businessman Jordan Kamchev and his family, or his business partner Sergei Samsonenko, because they are still on the business scene today after “settling their debts” with the Macedonian judiciary through prison sentences and confiscation of property that did not significantly dent their wealth. Interestingly, the Kamchevs were blacklisted after the judiciary was done with them. The Russian tycoon with Macedonian citizenship Samsonenko continued building his hotel in the centre of Skopje as if nothing had happened.

The US blacklist did not “blacken” Merko, Angjushev, Mijalkov or Kamchev, whose businesses carried on (Photo sources: Struga Municipality, MIA, Government, Acibadem Sistina)

The Prosecutor’s Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina has also launched investigations against several people on the US blacklist. As they said, the cases being processed were opened immediately after certain individuals and officials were blacklisted by the US Government. However, they did not reveal who the people are. But similar statements came from this judicial institution before, namely during 2023 and 2022, without any concrete outcome.

Still, investigations had been launched earlier or at the same time against certain blacklisted individuals for corruption and abuse of office, which, as in the case of former BiH Prime Minister Fadil Novalić, resulted in indictments and verdicts. Among them is Milorad Dodik.

Some of the blacklisted people agreed to talk about their experiences. Milovan Bjelica, former mayor of Sokolac and one of the founders of the Serb Democratic Party (SDS), told Bosnia’s Fokus that he has been on the US blacklist since 2003. That year he was removed as president of the then city of Srpsko Sarajevo, accused of helping Radovan Karadžić, the fugitive indicted by The Hague.

“I was among the first to be blacklisted by both America and the EU. It was said at the time that the measures would remain in force until Karadžić was arrested and handed over to the Hague Tribunal. In 2008 Karadžić was arrested, and with his arrest the reasons for sanctions against me ceased,” Bjelica says.

He says he was removed from the EU blacklist only in 2011, and that he assumed the same applied to the US blacklist.

“But I remained on that list. It will soon be 22 years that I’ve been on the US blacklist. I have never travelled to the US, I have no property or business with American citizens. In BiH I had no other obstacles to living and working safely. At the beginning of last year, when US sanctions against the group around Milorad Dodik were tightened, measures related to the banking system were tightened. We had to close our accounts. I voluntarily went to the bank so that people would not suffer consequences because of me, and I voluntarily terminated the contract so that I have no open bank accounts,” Bjelica said.

Other sanctioned officials, such as Milorad Dodik, kept their positions. Among them are former President of the Federation of BiH Marinko Čavara, Prime Minister Fadil Novalić, Željka Cvijanović, Republika Srpska Prime Minister Radovan Višković, Health Minister Alen Šeranić, National Assembly Speaker Nenad Stevandić and others. Some were later removed when their terms expired or when new parties came to power, and moved to other positions. Many sanctioned officials said at the time that they did not even feel the sanctions imposed on them and had no intention of travelling to the US.

It was only in 2024 that US sanctions on blacklisted individuals and companies were significantly increased. Banks began closing accounts. The accounts of the companies of Gorica Dodik, Milorad Dodik’s daughter, and of her brother Igor were closed. The accounts of the SDS political party were also closed, as were those of several other sanctioned people, including Marinko Čavara, who asked BiH institutions for help because he could not receive his salary due to the closed account. Last autumn companies linked to the Dodik family were closed, and when the owners began re-registering them or founding new ones, sanctions were imposed on the new companies too.

The head of Transparency International in BiH, Srđan Blagovčanin, told Samo Prasaj that these sanctions had very significant effects.

“The sanctions clearly confirmed what the media and civil society organisations had been warning about – that we actually have a criminal octopus in the state whose centre is at the very top of power. And for years the situation was such that this octopus was not prosecuted by the judiciary,” he says.

Blagovčanin adds that some of the people blacklisted in BiH were prevented from doing business.

“This type of criminal octopus, if we can call it that, undoubtedly had big implications. Their bank accounts were closed, and without access to bank accounts they could not operate legally,” he stressed.

Curiosity and disappointment

Montenegro’s Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) says that if a person is blacklisted, they will not be able to open a business account with Montenegrin commercial banks.

“However, if that person already does business in Montenegro, then their business will involve enhanced due diligence measures,” the Unit says.

But lawyer and professor of international public law Miloš Vukčević believes there is also a possibility of restricting the business activities of these people.

“There is sufficient legal basis for taking certain actions in Montenegro, especially now that we have this Law on Restrictive Measures in force, which also includes national restrictive measures,” Vukčević points out.

Asked why the blacklisted people have not suffered significant consequences in Montenegro, Vukčević says that is for the state authorities to answer.

“But formally and legally, acts adopted by another state are not subject to legal application here under the Law on Restrictive Measures, because it refers to UN resolutions and EU acts. The Central Bank, which is responsible for monitoring financial transactions, also said that the existing law does not provide sufficient legal basis, but I point out that if the state is thinking in that direction, the law also provides for national restrictive measures,” Vukčević stressed.

The impression is that the Balkans awaits the blacklists with curiosity, but then comes disappointment at how the authorities treat them. The saying that best fits the topic of blacklists is: “A nine days’ wonder.” Or, as our interviewee Nurko Pobrić, a former judge and professor of constitutional law in Bosnia and Herzegovina, says, it is worrying that sanctioned people such as Dodik continue to hold important public offices in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

“It is catastrophic that these sanctions did not encourage the judiciary in Bosnia and Herzegovina to deal with high-level corruption, that is, to thoroughly examine the allegations of the US Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC),” he says.

US sanctions can have a restrictive impact on certain individuals, especially in states with limited capacity or a lack of will to enforce them, stresses the report “On target? How effective are sanctions in the Western Balkans?”, produced last December by the international organisation Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime.

“Authorities that lack a clear will to tackle the intertwining of organised crime and politics potentially face a lack of expertise on how sanctions can affect relations between criminal actors and the upper echelons of society,” the report stresses.

It adds that governments rarely dispute the justification for sanctions and generally acknowledge that they are aware of the alleged acts of sanctioned persons. “However, a reluctance to take decisive action remains a common challenge,” the report states.

It also finds that many sanctioned individuals in the Western Balkans have significant influence, and that ruling structures continue to cooperate with sanctioned individuals or entities, covertly or openly.

“Such practices should be publicly condemned by the entities imposing sanctions, with clear consequences for those who undermine the implementation of sanctions,” the report states.

The report also notes that the EU should follow the example of the US and the UK in imposing sanctions, because the EU plays a key role in the Western Balkans, and many sanctioned individuals own property in EU member states and frequently travel to EU countries. “Therefore, travel bans and other sanctions by the EU would be more effective than those imposed by the UK or the US. This would also encourage politicians to avoid behaviour that undermines democracy and destabilises the region,” the report concludes.

Translated into our “Balkan language”, the blacklists can also be summed up as “the dogs bark, the caravan moves on” – yet another verbal invention for the flood of corruption and crime that hampers the region’s progress.

This content was produced by the Institute of Communication Studies.

Journalists: Sonja Kramarska, Maja Boričić (CIN Montenegro), Jona Plumbi (Faktoje Albania), Amil Dučić (Fokus BiH)

Camera: Slaven Tomović, Damir Begović

Editing: Fani Goshevska Zhivkovikj

This article was translated from Macedonian using artificial intelligence (AI). The original Macedonian version is available here.