Montenegro: Djukanovic Blames “Greater Serbia” Nationalist Circles and Russia to be Behind the Protests

Demonstrations in Montenegro

Originally appeared at Politika.rs, translated by Nenad Jovanović exclusively for SouthFront

Podgorica: Montenegrin Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic , said that the riots in Podgorica were an attempt to try to destabilize the country which is expecting membership in NATO. He accused the “Greater Serbia nationalist circles in Serbia” and also Russia, to be interfering in the internal affairs of Montenegro and supporting protests against the government.

Djukanovic, In an interview for Croatian Radio Television, said that for the chaos on the previous night’s protest, organizers are responsible, adding that responsibility will determine by the competent state authorities.

“I certainly would not want to prejudge what will be the result of their review, of the material that the competent national authorities will offer. At one point, as you can see, last night was transformed into an open, brutal violence, in an attempt to take over the state institutions, so, in an attempt to violently overthrow the government definitely for the purpose of changes in the course of state policy, then, of course, it came to the police response, who in my opinion, was in accordance with the constitution and the law, and police powers foreseen for dealing with such situations.” Djukanovic said.

He said that this is an attempt to endanger the constitutional order of Montenegro, with a clear ambition to come to a violent change of government and the revision of the strategic directions of the state policy of Montenegro, as reported by the RTCG.

Responding to a question whether the political turmoil in Montenegro is a result of a mingling of certain right-wing structures in Serbia and Russia, Djukanovic said he had no doubt that this is so and he spoke about it several times.

“It does not surprise us. What is new is that the Serbian state policy really, with not one word, not one gesture, they didn’t interfere with what was, so to speak, the political turmoil. Unfortunately, it was not only political. But “Greater Serbia” nationalist circles in Serbia were doing it, and as you can see they do that today as well. They still are trying to forget what happened last night, therefore, with fictional newspaper articles, or with some distortion of facts. Equally there is no doubt that Russia had and still has an active role in organizing the protests against the government in Podgorica,” Djukanovic said.

There is no need for some special interpretation . Just look at the three statements to which I have already pointed out. One thing that concerns my visit to Washington, the second that appeared during the first phase of protest, therefore, when the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs or their departments, gave a statement at the request of the Beta news agency in Belgrade and the third, which happened last Saturday when Russian Foreign Ministry issued a statement which indicated that the Montenegrin path to NATO can be problematic from the standpoint of stability democratic development and so on. So, as far as it should go, I think that’s more than enough facts suggest that they are organizers of the protests in Montenegro, unfortunately, we had here, a serious support outside of Montenegro, and I would say, that the joint ambition was to stop Montenegro on its way to European, and Euro-Atlantic integrations, Djukanovic said.

Recalling the history of his relations with the authorities in Belgrade, from Milosevic, to Kostunica, and today, Djukanovic said that he knew that he was for the opposition “red scarf from that time until today”. He explained why he does not intend to resign , reminding that ” in the past had two withdrawals from political life, – first one right after good work on the referendum on independence, and the second time after 2010, when they performed some other important jobs which were necessary to strengthen the stability of Montenegro “.

“I do not think about that topic now [Translator’s note: his resign, after 25 years of dictatorship, what a POS]. Now I am where I am, I work with my team very hard, there is no doubt it is so obvious that we have chose NATO membership as a strategic priority of our state policy. I am glad that we will, I believe, soon be in a position to state that we fulfilled that goal, and that after that Montenegro is more stable, even faster moving to its ultimate end, European quality of life, and then will come a time when we can think about it, what are the needs of Montenegro in the future, and what are our personal affinities. I’m really not someone who is willing to spent whole life in power, not someone who is ready to defend the (his) governing at all cost. But this is not about the government and we are not talking about government and personal experience of anything, we’re talking about trying to preserve something that is the legacy of 20 years of development [Translator’s note: 80% of the people are hungry] of Montenegro. Montenegro has managed to preserve peace thanks to mostly, I would say, rather unusual multiethnic harmony, when we consider regional reputation. And finally managed to consolidate the stability that was very important to us, in these years in which we were securing foreign investment, had a dynamic economic growth and a steadily moved toward membership in the European Union and NATO.” Djukanovic said.