Montenegro is not Thailand

It so happened that for the last five months I have been working and living in Montenegro. I used to live in the Moscow region, worked as a senior engineer in a small but successful Russian company and, like many others, sometimes thought about a better life. The best life in my understanding looked like a small house in the mountains, not far from the sea in a place where there is always good weather, friendly people, good ecology and measured life. But the road to a better life looked difficult - 20 years of mortgages for an apartment in Moscow, then 10 years of savings on a house in the mountains, so when there was a chance to skip all this and immediately try the dream, I had no doubt.

Enough time has passed to understand the Montenegrin reality a bit, but contact with the homeland and freshness of perception are still there, so I hope that my observations can be considered quite objective. I must say that life in Montenegro in moderate doses (several months) can be a therapeutic procedure for a resident of almost any Russian metropolis. Then there is a fork in the road - either it seems that it has fallen into a swamp, or, like Vladimir Vysotsky, you gain another homeland. But we leave the lyrics for personal blogs and look at the situation through the eyes of freelancers. I took as a basis an interesting post about Thailand and decided to compare it with my impressions. In Thailand, I was a tourist and I understand that the author, though he goes too far, but sets out many things adequately.
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the Internet

First of all, I should say that I came to Montenegro to launch a new Internet provider, which should provide tourists and new buildings in the country with WiMAX wireless mobile Internet. If we compare with the wishes of the author, then we can say that the Internet in Montenegro is as bad as in Thailand, 50 Mbit is not offered anywhere - a maximum of 30 Mbit, which can be connected only in a few new buildings of the business capital - Podgorica. If we are to be realistic, then we can remember that 10 years ago such a channel in Russia had only a whole large city, 5 years ago - a large company, and today only residents of large cities in crowded panel high-rises. In the cities of Montenegro, you will get an ADSL connection with a speed of up to 4-6 Mbit per download and up to 512 per upload. In the suburbs - 2000/512 via WiMAX, in tourist areas it is fast but quite expensive 3G. You can live and work with this.

Climate

The climate in Montenegro is diverse and much more comfortable than in Russia. In winter there is almost no snow, but there are heavy rains. No, of course there is snow here, in the north there are even ski resorts, but it disappears so quickly that there is no need to carry here sheepskin coats, skates and hats with earflaps. In winter, about the same as St. Petersburg in the summer :) In the summer, there is a strong heat in the capital. From the first day of my arrival in June, the temperature was set at 32 degrees, which ranged between 30 and 40 degrees until mid-September. During the day, conditioners save, but at night it is rather unpleasant. One important point: literally 10 km from the capital, in the valley near Skadar Lake, the temperature in the evening falls to a comfortable 27 degrees in the heat, in the mountains or on the seashore the temperature rarely exceeds 29 degrees, which makes staying by the sea a paradise time. Locals have long adapted to this climate, in July-August the capital becomes deserted. Many institutions send almost all of their staff on holidays for 30-40 days. For me personally, 2 months of heat by the sea are more pleasant than 6 months of frost and black snow on the Moscow Ring Road.

Offices and apartments

For work, the quality of the office is more important than the climate. With offices everything is fine, because European companies are engaged in construction and design. New houses and offices are constantly being built in the capital. The starting price for renting an office is 300 euro , apartments from 200 euro . After renting a Moscow Khruschik in Kapotnya, it will be enough not only for an office and an apartment, but also for daily coffee.

The seasonal factor is strong on the coast. In winter, most of the houses are empty, and in the summer they are very expensive in order to beat off shortfall in income. However, by agreeing to a year you can get good conditions.


These offices on the first line of the new prestigious quarter will cost you 100 euros per square meter. meter per year.

Job

The average salary in Montenegro is 500 euros . If you stick Moscow aplomb in the ass (and this will have to be done to settle down in the local community), you can get that kind of money for any specialty. Given the constant growth of the Russian diaspora, teachers, radio and television workers, marketing specialists, translators, and tourism managers will be in demand. There are absolutely no chances for drivers, vendors, bankers and accountants to find work. Local people work successfully in numerous state institutions - this is generally a problem of all countries of southern Europe. Therefore, it is much easier in Montenegro than in Thailand to find a job for a spouse, after all, there are always temporary vacancies in the tourist season.

At the same time, it should be understood that Montenegro is a wonderful country for comfortable spending money and hard for earning money, except for business. And now the last moment is perhaps the most important of all. If you can find the sale of your products among foreign companies or among tourists, then the procedure of opening and running a business will require much less effort than in Russia. There are companies that open their offices in Montenegro. All the difficulties and risks are reduced to spending small amounts of money. However, we must not forget that this is not an offshore, but a European country with bureaucracy and high taxes.

Visas

Compared to Thailand, the situation with visas is much better. As there, staying up to 30 days does not require any efforts other than a registration card (which interests no one, and is a way to take some money into the treasury from tourists). An automatic extension requires a trip abroad, for example, to Albania, to the border with which it is 15 km by car. The process itself is so routine that the main thing to remind customs to put the necessary stamp, but it may be lazy to do so. From the west it is more convenient to travel to Croatia.

In the Moscow embassy, ​​you can get a business visa for a period of 90 days. And, finally, in Podgorica, you can apply for a temporary borovak - a work visa for a period of one year. The process itself is quite complicated, but completely solvable. If you loved to play quests or MMORPGs, you can even enjoy the process, imagining that everything happens in elf (goblin) language. Only three stages, on each of them about five pieces of paper to get the main piece of paper, which takes you to the next stage. At the same time there are periods in which some pieces of paper burn, throwing you back to the very beginning. I tried to go through the procedure with the help of the advice of reputable Montenegrins and suffered a fiasco every time. As a result, he spat, took a translator and did everything himself in three days. A visa for a family and children is given almost automatically in the presence of your visa, only the entire set of pieces of paper must be duplicated. And this, incidentally, is about five euros for each piece of paper. The total cost of obtaining a visa - about 100 euros per person, of which 50 will go to medical insurance.

The main problem for obtaining a work visa is to receive an invitation from the company. If you open your company, you cannot become its director without a work visa. In this simple way, the state creates additional jobs for its lazy citizens.

Socialization and integration

This is perhaps the most interesting and important point of our conversation. The unique difference of Montenegro is that the issue of attracting Russian residents is an approved state policy. After the wars caused by the breakup of Yugoslavia, the territory of Montenegro was caught between Croatia, where historically hostile Croatian Catholics and Albania live and where Muslims live. The saddest facts of war are the enmity between Serbs and Croats, which are a single nationality with a common language, but divided by centuries of religious principles. Muslims are historically more tolerant of other religions, but have a higher birth rate, so their compact residence in one region leads to a change in the composition of the population and the emergence of problems such as Kosovo’s independence. However, the national question in Montenegro is completely closed after the wars, while in Russia, unfortunately, it is only opening.

By attracting Russian capital and people to the country, Montenegro protects its future.
Russian people in Montenegro feel support at the household, and at the state, and at the business level. This is all based on a deep interweaving of culture, history and relatedness of a language. All this is flavored with European goodwill and true Montenegrin hospitality.

Oh, language is a separate story! Without much effort, after 3 months, you begin to understand parts of everyday speech. After 1 year it can be explained, and after 5 years problems in communication disappear completely. Many Slavic words in the Serbian-Montenegrin language are better preserved than Russian. For example, the word "gate" means "door." “The gates opened” - “the door opened”. Something like a fairy tale from childhood? Another example is more accurate use of words.
"Sunday" in Serbian - "week". How then will the "week"? A "week" in Serbian - "Semitum". Is logical “Fifty” will be the same in both languages, but “four hundred” and “sixty” only seem ridiculous for the first time. In fact, the word "ninety" is a big absurdity than "ninety."

And of course delivering curiosities. Watermelon in Serbian will be "melon". And “straight” will be - “right”. After ordering a vegetable salad in a restaurant, be prepared to receive fruits, because in Serbian they are called “wax”.

Personally, I feel real pleasure listening to a speech in the company of ordinary Montenegrins who do not speak English or Russian. In this language, even with the same words in Russian, the stress falls on the first syllable. As soon as you perceive the rhythm of the language, about a quarter of the words become completely understandable. The meaning of some words or phrases becomes clear after a few days, when the brain finds a clue in the more ancient layers of consciousness.

Leaving the store, cafe or office, the Montenegrins say a pleasant word to each other. I do not know how to accurately translate it into Russian, but it's nice to hear!

Morals, Law and Police

The main feature of the Montenegrin society is its small size. The largest city by our standards is just a big village where everyone knows each other. The laws here are reprinted from European circulars, no one reads them and does not know, above all, local lawyers and jurists. In everyday affairs, everything is decided on the principle of dating, not efficiency. The supplier may be sincerely offended by the fact that you began to buy cheaper and higher-quality goods elsewhere. What we call the word corruption they call friendship. Competitors meet in a cafe and discuss information that in Russia would be considered the most terrible commercial secret. There is very little police, there is almost no crime, since it is pointless to crap in your village. These principles also apply to criminal concepts, you can unload strangers, but you can’t touch your local civilians. As a result, for example, Montenegro is a transit country for drug trafficking, and there are very few drug addicts in it.

Local anecdote: each state has its own mafia and only in Montenegro does the mafia have its own state.

It seems that the independence of Montenegro has a single reason - its leaders wanted to depend less on European justice. And, interestingly, the people are quite satisfied with this situation. The police, as in Russia, are busy with their affairs, it is useless to turn to them for help. But their affairs, in turn, do not concern ordinary citizens and do not create a threat.

I was warned that for driving without the included headlamps a fine of 30 euros is due, but I did not know that the use of the fog lights is the same. One day a policeman stopped me and, with friendly gestures, explained that it was not allowed to turn on these lights. Do I need to say how sincerely I said “nice” at parting?

Cars

With cars, everything is quite simple. Having a temporary residence permit for a year, you can buy any car and hang temporary numbers. In the process of obtaining the next residence permit for about a month, the license plate number will be invalid. When selling such a car to a local one, a 5% tax will be required. Whatever the price of buying a car, you can sell it no more than 5 thousand euros, because this is the solvency of the population. Prices for new cars are slightly lower than in Moscow. It makes sense to buy a used compact compact car, yes the same Logan or Sandero, on which zapadlo leave a successful IT-person in Moscow. He is here called Dacia.

Children's happiness

Montenegro is great for young children. The local family has three children. Street playgrounds are few, but the mass of game rooms. This again has a justification - it is too sunny in the summer, it is too rainy in the winter, and in the game rooms it is always comfortable, but you have to pay for it. In the metropolitan theater every week there are children's performances. Children are loved and cherished everywhere, even in a jar for a child there is always a candy. Small children play on the streets near houses alone as in the forgotten times of the USSR.

In Budva and Podgorica, there are Russian schools and kindergartens. A Russian school is opening in Bar. Of course, medicine and education for visitors will be paid and this fee is quite high by local standards, these are the costs of Europe. At the same time, the quality of medicine and education corresponds to the status of the backwater, which Montenegro had in the former Yugoslavia.

A spoon of tar

It may seem that Montenegro is an ideal country, but this is certainly not the case. There are problems and difficulties that are not revealed immediately.

The first difficulty - the famous Montenegrin mentality
If you have agreed with the Montenegrin, and he said "tomorrow", then you will be very lucky if everything is done in two weeks. If you are told “in a week,” it means never. I have not paid attention to the dates and time of business meetings for a long time. Whatever you agree on, whatever level a person is - most likely he will not come to a meeting on time. After long and fruitful negotiations, as it seems to you, you get up and shake hands waiting for the start of the activity. In fact, this is only one of the meetings, which absolutely means nothing. Such meetings can be three, five, ten - each of them is accompanied by a two-hour sitting in a cafe and talking about life. An explanation can be found for such behavior in climate. Before the appearance of air conditioners in the hot summer, people fell into hibernation, and during the rainy season it was impossible to plan some activities in advance, so everything happened spontaneously.

I know Russians who could not stand these ceremonies, just got up and went out in rage, but this is not possible because ...

Difficulty two - personal more important than work
Work, business for the Montenegrin categories are transient and low-impact. Living a small cohesive nation on the heels of the earth is much more important to have good neighborly relations. Opinion stupid more important work efficiency. Therefore, for success you need to build personal relationships, it happens in a cafe. Actually at the height of the working day, at 12 o'clock all the tables in all the cafes are overcrowded, and the cafes here are located in EVERY house. It is not surprising that the real work simply gets stuck in these ceremonies.

The third difficulty is education
Local education is absent as such. If universities are just morons, then the output is obtained morons with a diploma and aplomb, but excellent marks. After all, the same principles of their people operate in education. For smart people, training is certainly beneficial, so the only way to find local personnel is to take an intelligent graduate and train him from scratch, but here you have the following difficulty.

Difficulty Four - Labor Legislation
European socialism is destroying this continent before our very eyes. The rights of the employee are so well protected that by issuing a person to the state you lose any opportunity to punish him. All social benefits are paid by the employer. If the decree of an employee in Russia costs you the trouble of an accountant, and the payment goes through the social insurance fund, here you have to pay out of pocket. The output is the use of temporary contracts or black cash. However, in this case there is no way to protect your investment in training. Vicious circle.

It is not surprising that in the conditions of stagnation of the world economy, such concern leads to huge unemployment among young people. Large companies refuse to hire graduates, but willingly lure trained specialists.

The fifth difficulty - a tax on Russian
Montenegro is officially a tourist country, the season is quite short, so the local people objectively try to squeeze out the most money. Russians coming to do business in Montenegro without knowledge of the local mentality look like tourists. First, they are touched by low prices and begin to pay generously, then they see a slow return, in the end they understand that they are “milked” and are eager to give up business. You need to understand that your local partner with whom you will have excellent relations will always play for the team of Montenegro, and not Russia. It is he who will organize you local deliveries at double the price. This chain went through everything from the oligarch Deripaska, who bought and lost the aluminum plant, to a small company.

Sixth difficulty - consumer pampered
Montenegro is not the richest country in the Balkans, but here are the most demanding consumers. In the stores they hold people who pack products for you, cut into any products. You can ask you to slice a quarter loaf sandwich, 50 grams of sausage and trained sellers with a smile and without the slightest discontent you will do everything.

Local pay for the Internet on the credit system, they consider any disruption to work as a reason to refuse to pay the bill. A dissatisfied Montenegrin is terrible in a rage, it is unclear how seriously it is to consider the threats of violence in a country where at weddings it is still customary to shoot from Kalashnikovs. The only possible way of doing business is high quality of service, but these costs cannot be included in the price, everything is a burden on business. This can greatly change the business plans.

Instead of conclusion

I believe that Montenegro will win its recognition among Russian business. There is a unique combination of favorable factors here, and difficulties can be overcome, including personal contributions to the life of the country. Podgorica is rapidly developing right before your eyes.
2009 - Delta City first mall built
2010 - The second shopping mall Mall of Montenegro was built
2011 - new motorways with circular interchanges are laid throughout the city
2012 - beautiful modern stops were installed throughout the city in a month (there was nothing before).

Months or years spent here will not be a waste of time and you will not feel detached from Russia. Montenegro for Russia is like a replacement for the lost Crimea, it could have become part of the Russian Federation if President Yeltsin would extend a helping hand to the fraternal Slavic people in difficult times.

Welcome to have Zern Gore!