美国国家公共电台 NPR Alleged Plot, Coming Trial In Montenegro Reads Like a Thriller

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DAVID GREENE, HOST:

President Trump¹ has reversed his position on NATO.

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PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: I said it was obsolete². It's no longer obsolete.

GREENE: He cited efforts by the Alliance to Combat Terrorism as the reason to shift. Trump also gave the green light for Montenegro to join NATO. This is a move that could irritate Russia, as reporter Joanna Kakissis explains.

JOANNA KAKISSIS, BYLINE³: Montenegro may be best known for its stunning⁴ Adriatic coastline and as a setting for the 2006 James Bond film "Casino Royale." In February, news broke that actually sounded like a 007 thriller⁵. The country's special prosecutor⁶ Milivoje Katnic told reporters about a Russian plot to overthrow⁷ the government and kill the prime minister during elections last year.

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MILIVOJE KATNIC: (Through interpreter) Russian nationalists won to remove the government. They believe that it wasn't possible through elections, so they had to do it by force.

KAKISSIS: Foreign Minister Srdjan Darmanovic says Moscow was trying to block Montenegro from joining NATO.

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SRDJAN DARMANOVIC: Russia supported anti-NATO opposition⁸ in Montenegro, not only the parties, but anti-NATO NGOs, anti-NATO media, but being involved in staging the coup⁹ in the country - it was too far.

KAKISSIS: Darmanovic says he was shocked because Montenegro has always welcomed Russians. So many wealthy Russians live in the coastal¹⁰ town of Budva, and it's sometimes called Moscow by the sea. Ljubomir Filipovic, a former vice¹¹ mayor, says most Russian residents he knows don't support the Kremlin interfering¹² in Montenegro.

LJUBOMIR FILIPOVIC: Most of them that I'm meeting - because my family is Russian, my wife is Russian - they don't support these kind of actions by the Russian government. They don't want to bring the problems from where they're coming from with them.

KAKISSIS: A Kremlin spokesman denounced the coup allegations as absurd and denied that Russia interfered¹³ in Montenegro's internal affairs. The anti-NATO Democratic Front, Montenegro's main opposition party, says the allegations are a political ploy¹⁴ to jail opponents. Milan Knezevic which is one of the party's lawmakers who's been implicated¹⁵ in the investigation¹⁶.

MILAN KNEZEVIC: (Through interpreter) I'm only being accused because I oppose us joining NATO without considering that most Montenegrins don't actually want this. We want to hold the referendum, so we are being portrayed¹⁷ as enemies of the state.

KAKISSIS: Public opinion polls show that Montenegrins actually are divided on NATO membership. Many who oppose it cannot forgive NATO for bombing their country during the Kosovo crisis in 1999 when Montenegro was in union with Serbia. Sreten Zujovic remembers driving to the capital Podgorica with his pregnant wife when a NATO bomb hit.

SRETEN ZUJOVIC: At that moment I was about 500 meters from there, and I remember that moment today.

KAKISSIS: But political analyst¹⁸ Daliborka Uljarevic says NATO membership could be an antidote¹⁹ to the corruption²⁰ and organized crime that plague Montenegro. She hopes NATO leaders will talk to her government.

DALIBORKA ULJAREVIC: And to try to point out what should be reformed and what are some of the behaviors that are not so acceptable or welcomed.

KAKISSIS: She also wants NATO and other Western institutions to fill what's been a power vacuum in the Western Balkans.

ULJAREVIC: Russia is simply stepping in because the others are not active or they are not at all there

KAKISSIS: The trial related to the alleged²¹ coup is expected to begin this fall, and by then, Montenegro could already be a member of NATO. For NPR News, I'm Joanna Kakissis in Podgorica in Montenegro.