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Reinke: False news from Russia is a threat for Montenegro

Moscow has been spreading destabilizing information across the region and thus indicated the intent to change the government in Montenegro, and to derail its NATO accession, said the US Ambassador, Judy Rising Reinke.

She said this during yesterday’s conference: Truth in the era of disinformation; How vulnerable we are and how we fight, organized by the Atlantic Alliance of Montenegro.

President of the Atlantic Alliance, Savo Kentera, said that false information represented a danger for the freedom of thinking and democratic government, while adding that investment in education “is crucial for such threat”.

Rising Reinke said that foreign actors “are still trying to use social media and technologies, in order to open the fronts in their efforts to undermine democracy and key institutions”. According to her, NATO membership of Montenegro comes in a crucial moment, because Europe is the center of geopolitical competition.

She added that Montenegro “must strengthen rule of law, root out organized crime and improve freedom of the media for the sake of journalists who are the guardians of democracy”.

Rising Reinke said that Russia “is still using corrupt, concealed techniques in order to destabilize Western Balkans, especially now when Montenegro is in the EU accession process”.

“We have to join forces and work on mapping our powers, in order to overcome threats. We’re going to achieve that by strengthening institutions in the fight against corruption, applying the rule of law. Reforms are the best mechanism in the fight against bad influence and that fight has to be successful “, said Rising Reinke.

Kentera said that the openness of democratic societies “is, at the same time, their weakest point in the contemporary hybrid war, since Russia us using it very directly”.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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