In an interview with the Italian broadcaster RAI, the President of Montenegro, Milo Đukanović, told there is no doubt the Russian nationals were involved in attempted overthrow during elections on 16 October 2016.
He emphasized that Russia has its own interests which it has been trying to enforce even more aggressive if only it noticed greater weakness of Europe.
“I think it’s very significant for Europe to preserve its vision of unification and the Western Balkans integrations, back the Balkans in its endeavor to embrace the European system of values and close the gap for possible meddling of third political parties not following this system of values. This is how I interpret events that happened in Montenegro, which have been taking place now in some other countries of Europe. I believe no one is surprised by the fact Russia has been consistently dismissing allegations over the involvement of its citizens, as we saw very well what was going on in the Skripal case. Therefore, there’s no doubt that Russian nationals participated actively in certain events in Montenegro, and that they themselves possess official IDs of certain state services. This would be my answer to the question related to different arguments we can hear in this regard,” responded Đukanović when asked whether he trusted Russian president Vladimir Putin.
Commenting on the recent statement by the U.S. President Donald Trump regarding Montenegro and its NATO membership, Đukanović said he would rather not answer to that question, as “we are well aware and genuinely grateful for the U.S. continuous assistance in times when Montenegro had to preserve stability and multi-ethnical harmony, resist Milošević’s aggression, as well as in times when reforms were supposed to be enforced, which afterwards created preconditions for entering NATO.”
“Along with the NATO member states from Europe, the U.S. assistance was crucial, especially in speedy transformation of Montenegro, so that it can achieve standards which ensured NATO membership. This is why I believe it’s very important for us the U.S. society and state policy to consider Montenegro as a reliable partner. And we achieved this status in times when the Balkans was the topmost priority of the U.S foreign policy during Bill Clinton’s presidency,” noted President Đukanović.
