Russia<\/a> due to the Ukraine conflict have led many Russian businesses, especially in the IT sector, to relocate their operations to safer areas. Montenegro, which is not yet a member of the European Union, has become an attractive destination for such relocations. To illustrate, Aleksei Gudashev, a programmer, registered his IT agency in Montenegro, where he is the sole employee. He highlights that opening a company allows legal work with foreign clients and the possibility to obtain a residence permit in Montenegro.<\/p>\n\n\n\nBetween February 2022 and July 2023, the Montenegrin interior ministry issued a total of 29,294 temporary and permanent residence permits to Russian citizens, with just over half being temporary residence and work permits. To secure a temporary residence permit, a foreigner must demonstrate employment with a Montenegrin-registered company or show that they have opened a company in the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The ease of registering a limited liability company in Montenegro, with a minimum founding capital of one euro, has attracted many Russians. Nonetheless, according to revenue and customs data, 161 companies founded by Russian citizens have already closed since the Ukrainian conflict began.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Russian-owned companies are predominantly established along the coast, with Budva being the most popular municipality, followed by Podgorica, Herceg Novi, and the port of Bar. The IT firm First Line Software is the largest Russian employer in Montenegro, with 201 employees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Further scrutiny<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
The Union of Employers of Montenegro has expressed concern that about half of new companies established by foreigners have not submitted final accounts or settled their tax obligations. They stress the need for timely and institutional handling of such procedures to prevent misuse of company registration for purposes other than genuine economic activities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Regarding the economic benefit to Montenegro from Russian companies registering in the country, the Central Bank provided data on foreign direct investment. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Russia accounted for the largest share of foreign investment, amounting to 52.5 million euros, with a significant portion going into real estate and intercompany debt. Boban Stani\u0107 emphasizes the importance of stricter regulatory measures to ensure all companies fulfill their financial obligations, considering the potential impact on the sustainability of these ventures.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
New Russian-owned firms under scrutiny.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":470,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,44],"tags":[17,136],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/themontenegrotimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/themontenegrotimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/themontenegrotimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/themontenegrotimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/themontenegrotimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=468"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/themontenegrotimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/themontenegrotimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/470"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/themontenegrotimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=468"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/themontenegrotimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=468"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/themontenegrotimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=468"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}