British officials believe Russian authorities were behind a plot in October to kill Montenegro's pro-Western prime minister, the Sunday Telegraph newspaper reported, citing senior British government sources.
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-montenegro-election-britain-idUSKBN15Y00RThe British newspaper reported on Sunday that senior British officials believed there had been a plot to kill Djukanovic, and that Russia had constructed it in a way that it could be blamed on rogue Russian nationalists if uncovered.
"You are talking about a plot to disrupt or take over a government in some way. You can't imagine that there wasn't some kind of approval process," the newspaper quoted one unnamed source as saying.
The newspaper said Britain and the United States' intelligence agencies had gathered evidence of high-level Russian involvement in the plot for Montenegro's government.
------------------
The plot, as reported back in November 2016:
In order to overthrow the government of Montenegro, conspirators planned to kill Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic, said the countrys special affairs prosecutor Milivoje Katnich on November 6. According to investigators, Djukanovic was to be shot dead by a sniper on election day (October 16, 2016). This is why the Prime Minister was being spied on by conspirators. Afterwards, they hoped to overtake the Parliament of Montenegro. It was also planned that 500 Serbian militants and activists would penetrate the country and one of the opposition parties was to take hold of power. Katnich did not specify which one. According to newspaper Kommersant, however, this was to be pro-Russian political party Democratic Front, which had announced protests shortly before elections.
The coup detat had been brainstormed by two "Russia nationalists" who had found a person in Serbia to train terrorists to seize power, the prosecutor said.
https://meduza.io/en/feature/2016/11/07/russians-accused-of-attempting-a-coup-in-montenegroAmongst the 14 people who have been detained are those who fought in the Donbass on the side of pro-Russian separatists. Their names have not been specified. According to Kommersant, one of them is Aleksander Sindzhelich, leader of nationalist organization Serbian wolves. Sindzhelich spent several months in Ukraine and also recruited volunteers from Serbia. Belgrade agreed to give Sindzhelich over to Montenegrin authorities. He is now giving testimony on the other participants of the failed coup.
The purpose of the coup was to prevent Montenegros accession to NATO. The Democratic Party of Socialists, led by Milo Djukanovic, won 41 percent of the vote in the election. The heart of its platform was Montenegro's integration into the EU and NATO. The party opposed the Democratic Front, which is openly supported by Moscow and pro-Kremlin political party United Russia. The prosecutor's office believes that Djukanovic became the target of conspirators because of his pro-Western rhetoric. It is expected that Montenegro will become a full member of NATO in spring 2017.
The Kremlin denied any involvement in the coup attempt. We categorically deny the possibility of any official involvement in organizing illegal actions, said the Kremlins spokesperson Dmitry Peskov.