Montenegro accuses Russia of planning last October's coup attempt
Russian intelligence was involved in planning a coup d’état in Montenegro on the 16th of October 2016, said special state prosecutor Milivoje Katnić in a local television broadcast.
According to the Montenegrin prosecutor, on the 16th of October, a group of conspirators planned to assassinate Prime Minister Milo Đukanović. Russian citizen Eduard Shirokov featured on the list of suspects for participation in the attempted coup.
According to a written publication of Vijesti, the investigation has information that Russian intelligence had contact with the conspirators. The conclusions are based on the defendants’ testimonies and their negotiations.
The publication notes that Montenegro is expecting to receive explanations from Moscow.
Katnić clarified that Shirokov is a member of Russian intelligence.
Earlier the special prosecutor spoke about the involvement of “Russian nationalists” in the coup, but he asserted that there was no evidence of their connections to Russian intelligence.
The Daily Telegraph reported that the British government believes that Russia secretly planned to overthrow the Montenegrin government by killing Milo Đukanović, the acting Prime Minister at the time.
The paper writes that this evidence was acquired with the help of the British and American intelligence agencies.
The Russian embassy in Britain called these reports “fake news recycling”.