Russian defence minister Sergei Shoigu said that Montenegro’s accession to NATO is needed to increase the alliance’s control in the Balkans, adding that our country has zero military potentiality.
According to the Russian minister, NATO continues to perform projection of forces near Russia’s borders and to include new states in its sphere.
“The latest decision on the accession of Montenegro to the alliance is a direct confirmation of this. Podgorica has zero military potentiality, but its geographical position allows NATO to strengthen control of the Balkans,” said Shoigu at Moscow Conference on International Security.
As a reminder, this is not the first time that Russia’s officials and the media mention Montenegro in a negative context.
A spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova earlier urged Russians not to travel to Montenegro because, as she said, there is an anti-Russian sentiment there.
“The Russophobia comes from the political leaders of this country and in this context, the recent Montenegro’s decision to extend visa-free stay of our compatriots for 90 days is a trick made in favour of relations between the West and Russia,” said Zakharova, adding that citizens who want to travel to Montenegro should take all the mentioned circumstances into consideration.
The campaign has started since the US ratification of the Montenegro’s NATO Accession Protocol. In fact, only a day after the US Senate ratified the protocol, Russian media suddenly started to negatively report on Montenegro. Thus, Russian state TV stations aired features aimed at preventing Russians from visiting our country.
