Montenegrin Prime Minister Milojko Spajic confirmed on October 9 that several Russian citizens had been arrested in his country, including Mikhail Zvinchuk, founder of the Russian network Rybar. In a post on social media, Spajic described the action as successful and stressed that it had long been warned that efforts at hybrid activity and the destabilization of Montenegro were constantly accompanying its path to the European Union. “This is not the time for hasty statements, nor for naive conclusions. There are serious indications that require careful examination of every trace and assessment of every connection in a broader context. We will not make public what should remain in the domain of security services,” he wrote.
According to him, the message after today's successful action confirms that the institutions are doing their job. "Montenegro protects its interests and no one will jeopardize our European future," Spajic declared. Montenegrin media previously reported that the Montenegrin Police and the National Security Agency (ANB) of this country conducted an action in Risan on Friday morning, during which five people suspected of being connected to the Russian Rybar network were arrested.
Rybar later confirmed on Telegram that the network’s founder, Mikhail Zvinchuk, had been detained in Montenegro, along with other Russian citizens. In a post on his English-language channel, Rybar said that all those detained “were legally staying in Montenegro and that filming of the Cetina Monastery, for which an official request had been submitted earlier, was planned.”
Rybar said his team is in contact with the Russian Foreign Ministry, which is working to resolve the situation, claiming that “no Montenegrin laws have been violated.” Rybar is a Russian media and information network, founded in 2018 by Mikhail Zvinchuk, a former employee of the Russian Defense Ministry’s press service. During the war in Ukraine, Rybar became one of the most influential pro-Russian military channels on Telegram.
Zvinchuk has been under European Union sanctions since 2023, due to supporting Russia's war against Ukraine and spreading propaganda.
The European Union says he is a member of a working group formed by Russian President Vladimir Putin to coordinate mobilization efforts related to the war in Ukraine. The United States and the United Kingdom have linked Rybar to foreign influence operations and information warfare. In 2024, the U.S. State Department, through its Rewards for Justice program, offered a reward of up to $10 million for information on individuals associated with the Rybar project, citing suspicions that the network had participated in foreign influence operations. In recent years, the network has expanded its activities to the Western Balkans, including Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina.
