Yearbook 2019
Montenegro. Those involved in the coup attempt in 2016
received their verdicts in May. There were five years in
prison for two opposition politicians - Andrija Mandić and
Milan Knežević in the Russian- and Serbian-friendly
opposition Alliance Democratic Front. According to
CountryAAH, two Russian
intelligence officers were sentenced in their absence to 12
and 15 years in prison, while another nine, most Serbs,
received up to eight years in prison. Another person
involved is awaiting his verdict. He was granted asylum in
the Russian Federation in 2018 but will be tried in his
absence. It was not until the 2016 election that the coup
makers, with the support of Moscow, attempted to assassinate
the country's prime minister, current president Milo Šukanović, among other things, with the aim of stopping
Montenegro's membership in NATO. The coup failed, and
Montenegro has been a member of NATO since 2017. In October,
the New York Times revealed that a Russian elite force,
"Division 29155", probably behind the coup attempt; this
group is also suspected to be behind the poisoning of
ex-agent Sergei Skripal in the UK in 2018. The group, which
is part of the Russian Federation's military intelligence
service GRU, aims to destabilize Europe.
In November, the country's Minister of Development and
Tourism Pavle Radulović resigned after revealing suspected
corruption in his ministry. Employees should have asked for
bribes from a businessman for a building permit in the
tourist resort of Budva.
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