National Post (National Edition)
Russians suspected in Balkan coup plot
NATO accession seen as affront to Moscow
THE KREMLIN HAS DENIED INVOLVEMENT IN THE PLOT.
LONDON • Montenegro is reportedly preparing to indict the Russian intelligence officer it accuses of masterminding a bloody coup plot to try to stop the Balkan nation from joining NATO.
Eduard Sismakov, an officer with Russia’s GRU military intelligence service, is accused of running a web of Serbian and Russian nationalists and paramilitaries who plotted to assassinate the Montenegrin prime minister.
The British Government believes the thwarted plot was devised with the backing of Moscow, and U.K. and U.S. intelligence agencies have been helping the tiny Balkan nation unravel the conspiracy.
Another Russian GRU operative, using the name Vladimir Popov, is also being sought by Montenegro.
Milivoje Katnic, Montenegro’s special prosecutor, said the Russians would be indicted at the latest by April 15, along with 22 other people, The Sunday Times reported.
Sismakov was deputy military attaché at Russia’s embassy in Warsaw before he was expelled for spying in 2014, the Montenegrin authorities have said.
He and Popov are said to have arrived in Serbia last year to co-ordinate the coup plot.
Interpol has issued wanted notices for both Sismakov, under his alias Shirokov, and Popov. However, under the Russian constitution, its citizens cannot be extradited.
The Kremlin did not respond to requests for comment and has denied any involvement in the plot, which was scheduled for polling day in Montenegro’s elections last October.
Montenegro is expected to join NATO by May, despite strong opposition from Moscow, which has been angered by the military alliance’s expansion in the region.
The accession would dash Russian hopes of a military port on the Adriatic, and complete a wall of NATO members on the northern Mediterranean.
Katnic last week provoked anger from the Kremlin after he alleged for the first time the involvement of “Russian state bodies” in the plot to kill Milo Djukanovic.
Around 20 people were arrested on the eve of the country’s parliamentary elections.
The prosecutor has said the plan would have led to plotters mingling with opposition protesters outside the parliament building in the country’s capital, Podgorica, as the election results were announced.
At an appointed sign, the conspirators would have forced their way inside and, in the confusion, colleagues dressed in police uniforms would have opened fire on the crowd “so that citizens would think that the official police are shooting at them,” Katnic told the Telegraph last week.
“Had it been executed, such a scenario would have had an unforeseeable consequence,” he said.
The plotters would also have shot dead Djukanovic, it is alleged.
Twenty-four of NATO’s 28 members have so far ratified Montenegro’s accession. Diplomats believe the agreement of the remaining states, including the United States, is a formality. The country also hopes to join the EU next decade.