Russian Nationalists Involved in Foiled Assassination Plot on Montenegro PM

20 people arrested in October on Montenegro's election day are now known to have been involved in a plot to assassinate the Prime Minister of that country, Milo Djukanovic. The group was originally thought to have been "Serbian paramilitaries," and many are known to be citizens of both Serbia and Montenegro. It has also now been discovered, however, that they sympathize with Russia and are against NATO and the European Union. The current PM of Montenegro, Djukanovic, is known to be pro-Western and intends for Montenegro to join both organizations, against the wishes of Russia and Russian sympathizers. The Russian nationalists involved in this assassination plot were likely intending to disrupt this process of Westernization in Montenegro, and may have intended to carry out a coup in that country by overthrowing the current Montenegrin government. This small Eastern European country was formed as a sovereign state when it broke from its neighbor state, Serbia, in 2006. The Montenegrin government has embraced the process of Westernization faster than its neighbor state, but opposition remains present in the country. Many of the NATO detractors in Montenegro point to the NATO intervention in Serbia in 1994-1995 as evidence that Montenegro should not join the organization. All of this stands as reminders of the former Iron Curtain that isolated Eastern European states from the Western world during the Cold War, as states within the Warsaw Pact remained under the watchful shadow of the Soviet Union.

Justin Wysocke

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-37890683