Writes: Šeki Radončić
The latest events in Montenegro bring the Russian GRU back into focus. The infamous Russian military intelligence service in charge of coups, assassinations, poisonings, hybrid actions and aggression, cyber attacks, destabilization…
The goal of the GRU in Montenegro in 2016, when the coup attempt under the command of Russian agents Vladimir Popov and Eduard Shishmakov failed, was to prevent Montenegro from joining NATO.
This time, Russia's goal is innovated, but equally dangerous: to block Montenegro's path to the EU, to compromise its position as a NATO member, to annex it to Serbia and the “Russian-Serbian world” and finally to reach the Montenegrin sea via Serbia. And play the Cossack there. And a Moravian.
OLD PLAYERS
The Kremlin is carrying out a new attempt at a silent coup in Montenegro with the help of the same players as in 2016: official Belgrade, the Serbian Orthodox Church, pro-Russian parties, media and coalitions that now rule Montenegro, puppet Prime Minister Zdravko Krivokapic. And, of course, his new spiritual guru, Metropolitan Joanikije.
It is obvious: This time, the Moscow-Belgrade axis inserted the Serbian Orthodox Church into Montenegro like a Trojan horse. A tried and tested bearer of aggressive Serbian nationalism and chauvinism, which left behind, only in the last war in the SFRY, hundreds of thousands of dead and wounded, and millions of displaced people.
Insiders know the dark role of the hawk of Joanikije in the attempted coup in 2016 and his strong ties with Russia.
In Ostrog, in 2016, the main headquarters and the main gathering place of the most prominent Russian-Serbian conspirators were located, who were protected by the monastery walls, priest's omen, parliamentary immunity and encrypted telephones and made final preparations for the coup.
During the trial of the former general of the Serbian gendarmerie, Bratislav Dikić, irrefutable evidence was presented that he was in Ostrog during his enemy mission in Montenegro.
However, due to the assessment that the entry of the police into Ostrog and Joanikije's prosecution would further complicate the already explosive security situation, that intention was abandoned. In addition, it was estimated that there was already enough evidence against the conspirators.
A few days ago, Antena M announced that on the eve of the scandalous enthronement of Joanikije in Cetinje, in addition to Serbian BIA agents, a key role was played by a high-ranking member of the GRU (name known to the editorial office), an employee of the Russian Embassy in Montenegro.
According to Antena M's sources, this is a GRU informant who “had close relations with the late Metropolitan Amfilohije, and is in even stronger ties with his successor Joanikije.”
The allegations of Antena M were not denied by the Russian embassy in Podgorica, nor by Joanikije.
WHAT THE DATA SHOW
According to the Podgorica Center for Investigative Reporting, the dokument.me is a member of the GRU 29155 Unit.
Members of that unit are trained at the 161st GRU Special Training Center. Some groups of operatives and in a special camp in Chechnya.
And that these are people ready for terrorism and killing, in addition to the hellish plan in Montenegro in 2016, when the murder of Milo Đukanović was also planned, the following data show:
A) The Czech Republic expelled 18 GRU agents with diplomatic passports due to evidence that Anatoly Chepigov and Alexander Mishkin were involved in planting an explosion in an ammunition depot in the south of the Czech Republic. When, in 2014, two Czech soldiers were killed.
B) The British discovered that Chepigov and Mishkin were in fact GRU agents, Ruslan Boshirov and Aleksandar Petrov, accused of attempting to kill Sergei Skripalj and his daughter in Salzbury.
C) Agents of the GRU 29155 Unit, among other things, participated in the attempted murder by poisoning of the Bulgarian arms manufacturer Gebrev and his son, and in the riots in Moldova. They financed the Taliban to kill members of the international forces in Afghanistan.
D) The GRU cyber units, known as Units 26165 and 74455, are known for hacking Hillary Clinton‘s server and placing her private correspondence in the Western media…
Since the enumeration of such and similar actions of the GRU would turn into a telephone directory, it is simply impossible that the members of the mentioned Russian elite cyber units are not included in the current hybrid aggression against Montenegro.
LAVROV DID NOT LEAVE THE DILEMMA
The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia, Sergey Lavrov, also arrogantly demonstrated that Russia directly interferes in the internal affairs of one NATO member. He announced himself only five days before the scandalous enthronement of Metropolitan Joanikije in Cetinje.
And he did not calm the passions, although they threatened the outbreak of a civil war in Montenegro. He has already “fraternally” added gasoline to the fire by stating “that the United States aims to destroy Orthodoxy and Orthodox unity in the world”, and that “we see such attempts in the Balkans, where the Serbian Orthodox Church is the target of strong attacks.”
Five days after Joanikije's enthronement in Cetinje, Lavrov again made a statement that “the Montenegrin Orthodox Church is part of the Serbian Orthodox Church.”
However, only after the identical statement was repeated by Metropolitan Ilarion Alfejev, the head of the Department for External Church Affairs of the Moscow Patriarchate, Montenegrin President Milo Djukanovic replied.
Emphasizing that “this confirmed the open confessions of Minister Lavrov that the Russian Church serves the state interests of the Russian Federation abroad” and that “in relation to our country, they are both anti-Montenegrin and anti-Orthodox.”
PUTIN IS SILENT, VUCIC IS PRAISING
Vladimir Putin is wisely silent, but what he thinks is what his belly fighter Lavrov says.
However, Aleksandar Vučić could not bear not to brag about Serbia's direct interference in the internal affairs of a NATO member. Let's remind ourselves anyway:
“The BIA kept the Serbian leadership informed about the events in Montenegro, that is, in Cetinje, all night,” said Vucic.
Which is no wonder. Dozens of BIA agents roam around Montenegro every day before and after the arrival of the new government, and when the BIA does something in and around Montenegro, the Russian GRU and FSB know that. Especially after the BIA was cleared of experienced agents who accompanied Russian agents in Belgrade in 2016.
Namely, the BIA then documented the entry and stay of two Russian agents in Serbia, secretly recording the contacts of Shishmakov and Popov with the conspirator Sasa Sindjelic. Some of this evidence was handed over to Montenegrin prosecutors and presented at the trial for a coup attempt in Montenegro.
But, only twenty days after the failed coup, the decorated BIA agents, who worked on that case, were promptly retired. That is, ten days after the sudden arrival in Belgrade of Nikolai Patrushev, the head of all Russian intelligence services. And his meeting in private with Vučić on October 26, 2016.
A month later, the term of office of the head of the Serbian secret police, Aleksandar Djordjevic, was terminated overnight, a year before the deadline. Bratislav Gašić was appointed in his place.
After Patrushev's visit to Vucic, the Serbian prosecutor's office stopped cooperating in the coup case with colleagues from Montenegro and began obstructing the entire case.
It is not known what argument Patrushev aimed at Vučić's forehead, but since then, Vucko has become Putin's poodle.
RUSSIAN BROOM IN ANB
After the installation of the pro-Russian government in Montenegro, a Russian paw grabbed two crown witnesses in the Podgorica trial. Fearing that the Russians would kill him, Crown witness Sasa Sindjelic fled Serbia to Montenegro. Although he knew that he would be extradited to Croatia and that he would spend the next twenty-one years behind bars for the murder of its citizen Mirko Fotes.
According to Kosovo media, the second witness, Pajo Velimirović, was abducted by Serb agents in Kosovo and taken to Serbia. He was then taken to prison to change his statement before a court in Podgorica. His further fate is unknown.
Russia's revenge then included actors preventing a coup attempt in Montenegro.
Dejan Perunicic was promptly removed from the position of director of the Montenegrin ANB. In the package with him, the head of the counter-intelligence sector of the ANB, Luka Bulatović, who was in charge of preventing foreign influences in Montenegro, and thus the Russian one, was also dismissed.
The cutting of Montenegrin personnel on the “anti-Russian line” in the ANB continued with the dismissal of the head of the sector for the fight against terrorism, Danilo Grozdanić. The head of the Podgorica center of the ANB, Bojan Vukčević and Miloš Vujisić, in charge of the sector that deals with Russian influence and agency in Montenegro, were also removed from their positions.
The trial of Dejan Perunicic and his subordinate secret surveillance agent, Srdjan Pavicevic, is also underway. Due to the alleged criminal offense of abuse of official position.
Russian broom in the ANB Dejan Vukšić cleans the Montenegrin national security service even in depth. The unfit were transferred to serve in the most remote towns in the north of Montenegro, in order to force them to resign themselves.
“CYBER KILLERS”
Special state prosecutor Milivoje Katnić and special prosecutor Sasa Čadjenović were also attacked by Russian avengers. Due to their removal, the Prosecutorial Laws were changed and adopted, although they did not receive the green light from the Venice Commission and the EU. Violence is being sought to elect a new Prosecutorial Council, which would remove Katnic and his prosecutorial-police team following an ultimatum from the pro-Russian DF.
This would be followed by new arrests in Montenegro. Of course, according to the already prepared lists. If that part of Russia's revenge succeeds, Montenegro will soon become the Russian Gulag.
Milo Đukanović is certainly at the top of the pyramid of Russian revenge. Therefore, an attempt was made to politically liquidate the Montenegrin president. GRU agents, assisted by colleagues from Unit 29155 and “cyber killers” from Units 26165 and 74455, with an army of Russian-Serbian bots, are shooting at Djukanovic on social networks and pro-Russian media in Montenegro.
With hate speech, various subterfuges and comments at the expense of targeted people and groups, Russian specialists in hybrid wars are creating public opinion to the taste of the Kremlin.
Their target group is younger readers, who do not recognize the special war and who can be more easily influenced by sophisticated propaganda.
And how much attention the Kremlin pays to the propaganda manipulation of its bots, their discussions and comments was best shown by the ambassador of the Russian Federation in Bosnia and Herzegovina. H.E. Igor Kalabuhov in an interview for Klix.ba (August 4, 2021) recommends reading the comments as serious literature. So he says:
“I like the comments of the readers the most sometimes deep, even aphoristic thoughts can be seen in the remarks of certain participants in the discussions. And it is of great help to understand the peculiarities of national psychology, especially the younger generation.”
It is not surprising why the Russian ambassador, unlike serious people who hate most comments on portals and social networks, advertises the reading of such “literature”: Russian-Serbian bots are, without competition, the strongest in the Balkans. They entertained the great America about misery, let alone small Montenegro.
Well-coordinated hybrid aggression and its disastrous results show that Montenegro is in the jaws of the GRU. However, the current Montenegrin Quisling government, due to its mercenary mentality, incompetence, corruption, blackmail and fear, does not think of opposing the Kremlin, which governs Montenegro through the same government, the Serbian Orthodox Church and Serbia.”