Prime minister Dusko Markovic believes the Russians Vladimir Popov and Eduard Shirokov, ie Shishmakov organised the attempted coup on 16 October last year.
“It is evident that those two individuals were organisers of a group that was supposed to carry out that coup. Yes, they have been identified as such,” said Markovic.
He said this in an interview with Sky News on Saturday during the Munich conference before the media outlet released photos of the suspect’s passport that show he changed his surname Shishmakov into Shirokov in August 2016, two months before the date of the parliamentary elections in Montenegro.
Western agencies believe that this is evidence of his and Russia’s involvement in the attempted coup.
Polish authorities confirmed for Sky News that “Eduard Vadimovich Shishmakov was identified as GRU officer (Russia’s intelligence agency) and in October 2014 he was declared persona non grata by the Polish government… after discovering his involvement in intelligence activities”.
Markovic said that there were certain structures in Russia which were preparing terrorist activity against Montenegro and their activities were aimed at halting Montenegro on its path towards NATO.
“They didn’t want to see us in NATO but they wanted to see those other parties that are anti-NATO parties, winning in the election. This was quite realistic and this threat was imminent. This was a threat not only to Montenegro but this was a threat to democracy,” Markovic told Sky News.
