Russian Spies Found Guilty of 2016 Montenegro Coup Attempt

By Darryl Coote

Andrija Mandic (R) and Milan Knezevic, leaders of the pro-Russian opposition Democratic Front,

said they will fight their convictions. photo by Boris Pejovic/EPA-EFE

(UPI) -- A Montenegro court Thursday found 14 people including two suspected Russian agents guilty of plotting to overthrow the Balkan country's government in 2016 to prevent it from joining NATO.

Eduard Shishmakov and Vladimir Popov, operatives with the Russian military intelligence agency formerly called G.R.U., were convicted of attempted terrorism and having created a criminal organization. Shishmakov was also convicted of inciting acts against the constitution and safety of Montenegro, the United Kingdom confirmed.

Shishmakov was sentenced to 15 years in prison while Popov was sentenced to 12 years, Montenegro's CDM reported.

They were tried in absentia and are believed to be in Russia.

Judge Susana Mugosa said the two Russians "knowingly tried to terrorize Montenegrins, attack others, threaten and hurt basic constitutional and social structures," the New York Times reported.

Two leaders of the left-wing Democratic Front opposition party Andrija Mandic and Milan Knezevic were each sentenced to five years in prison for coordinating with the two Russians. Neither was present during sentencing.

Mandic and Knezevic said they will appeal the verdict, Balkan Insight reported.

"This is a breaking point for Montenegro," Mandic said in a press conference. "We don't accept arrests."

He then accused Montenegro President Milo Dukanovic and his brother, Aleksander Dukanovic, of lying that there was an attempted coup while urging Serbia to speak out against their convictions.

"We Serbs in Montenegro will not be slaves," Knezevic said.

Former commander of an elite Serbian police unit Bratislav Dikic, who was arrested in October, was sentenced to eight years in prison.

The other defendants received sentences ranging from one to eight years.

Police officers stand guard in front of High Court in Podgorica, Montenegro, where two Russian intelligence officers and two opposition politicians, among 14 people, were convicted over an alleged 2016 election day plot to overthrow Montenegro's government, killing the prime minister and bringing a pro-Russian alliance to power. Photo by Boris Pejovic/EPA-EFE

According to the verdict, the group had planned to assassinate then-Prime Minister Milo Dukanovic on election day Oct. 16, 2016, and install a pro-Russian, anti-NATO leader.

The coup was thwarted by police after receiving a tip by Western spy organizations, Al Jazeera reported.

Russia has denied any involvement in the attempted coup.

The U.S. embassy in the capital of Podgorica said the verdict was a "historic day for the rule of law in Montenegro."

"The open and transparent trial represents an important step forward for the rule of law and sends a strong message about the unacceptability of efforts to undermine democracy," the office said in a tweet.

The 2016 election was largely seen as a referendum on joining NATO, which Montenegro had agreed to but not formally ratified.

Some 20 Serbian nationalists were arrested on the eve of the election with the 14 convicted Thursday being charged of plotting the overthrow of the country.

Montenegro joined NATO June 5, 2017, some 11 years after it gained independence.

The United Kingdom said the failed coup was "one of the most outrageous examples of Russia's attempts to undermine European democracy."

"The G.R.U.'s brazen attempt to interfere with Montenegro's national elections and undermine Montenegro's application to join NATO is yet another example of destabilizing and aggressive Russian behavior over the last decade," U.K.'s Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt said.

The guilty verdicts were the product of "unprecedented transparency" while Russia's claims the two men were researching Russian military in the region during the first world war for an article "were proven to be absurd."

He then demanded that Russia stop attacking other nations' democratic process while calling on Moscow to uphold the security of Europe and fulfil its responsibilities to the United Nations Security Council.

The U.S. State Department echoed the U.K.'s message, calling the verdicts a "clear victory for the rule of law" while "laying bare Russia's brazen attempt to undermine the sovereignty of an independent European nation."

"The United States is proud to count Montenegro as an ally and will continue to support Montenegro in its efforts to strengthen the rule of law, protect media freedom and advance other reforms needed to join the European Union," State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus said in a statement.

Albania's Hyper-Corruption Threatens Regional Peace and Stability in Balkans

Here’s why Albania is a failed state

Adam Garrie, The Duran

Abanian Prime Minister Edi Rama

With many eyes on Macedonia’s political situation which has been made worse by foreign interventions from the EU and NATO which both support the Tirana Platform which would effectively destroy the unity of the Macedonian state, internal events in Albania itself may soon jeopardise stability in the region.

Protests throughout Albania have been going on for months as the main opposition Democratic Party and other activists have called for the Prime Minister Edi Rama to resign prior to elections scheduled for 18 June, 2017 . Many want a technocratic government to oversee the process, having lost all faith in democracy.

We have reached an impasse wherein self-proclaimed Albanian democrats no longer trust that their country is democratic. Impartial observers have been warning of this for years.

Kruje, Albania - was the capitol city in the middle ages

Albania has a population of under 3 million people about 60% of whom are Muslim (Sunni) and 17% Christian. At one point under communism, Albania was declared the world's first atheist state. Since the collapse of communism, religion has returned. Albanians are believed to be involved in a significant amount of human trafficking as portrayed in the movie "Taken". 

One can tell that the genie is fully out of the bottle when even the neo-liberal Financial Times admits that half of Albania’s GDP comes from drug sales and cultivation.

The truth of the matter is that Albania is a narco-state, built on top of a mafia state where the illegal drugs trade, organ trade, weapons trade, human trafficking and blatant corruption are the guided forces of business in both the private and public sectors.

The fact that this impoverished, broken state has imperialist ambitions, threatening to annex neighbouring states including parts Serbia, Macedonia, Greece and Montenegro is not only illegal and irresponsible but also deeply frightening.

Many in Albania are openly calling for a ‘Greater Albania’ which would encompass the sovereign territories of each aforementioned nation. But as it stands, Albanian leaders cannot even run the state that they have according to its current borders.

Actually, from their perspective they may be running the state just fine.

A lengthy report from a US based anti-corruption website, citing a variety of mostly western sources has found that corruption exists at almost every level of the Albanian state, including in private business dealings.

The EU is all rather confused about this. Albania’s corrupt mafioso elite are staunchly pro-EU and Albania is an enthusiastic member of NATO.

Some realists in the EU however realise that Albania’s cringe-worthy levels of corruption would be an economic and security disaster for the EU. More worryingly though, many EU officials prefer to look the other way or simply lie about the dire situation in order to continue promulgating a narrative that Albania is an EU country in the making.

While the EU itself is deeply corrupt, Albania’s corruption is far more ‘old school’ in the sense that money talks and when it doesn’t, the bullets do the talking.

Albania’s terrorist proxies and violent separatists threaten to break up Macedonia and violate Serbia’s territorial integrity. When one realises that these people cannot control their own country, it puts things into perspective. The perspective is in a word: grim.