Đukanović: Serbia is trying to do in the region what Russia is doing in its own

Milo Đukanović, President of Montenegro, spoke for the United States Institute of Peace.
The primary topic of discussion with the representatives of that organization was the security situation in Europe, in light of the pronounced Russian influence in many countries of the continent, and during the Russian military aggression in Ukraine. Đukanović was announced by Lisa Grande, president of the US Institute of Peace, and former US Secretary of State for Europe and Eurasia Dr. West Mitchell, who moderated the conversation, also took part in the discussion.
The hosts pointed out that in the previous months, Montenegro showed solidarity with Ukraine, for its Euro-Atlantic path, with concrete military support.
These questions concern the present and the future of the European region of the Western Balkans, but also questions that go much deeper and concern the security of Europe and the Euro-Atlantic area as a whole. Russian aggression against Ukraine has very strong reflections on the area of the Western Balkans. And the Russian influence on our area began significantly earlier, since 2014, when Russia changed its course towards the European perspective of the Western Balkans. Russia tried and is trying to use its influence to direct the countries of the Western Balkans towards a different future - said Đukanović.
As he pointed out, the most drastic influence of Russia in the Balkans happened in our country, during the parliamentary elections in our country in 2016.
Russia tried to remove the government in Montenegro in a coup d'état, to stop Montenegro's formal accession to NATO, and we managed to respond and repel those attempts. We managed to hold elections, and a few months later we formalized membership in NATO. None of us had any illusions that Russia would give up, on the contrary. We believed that it would only increase its influence and expand the repertoire of methods used in conducting "hybrid war", and that is exactly what happened. In the years after 2016 until today, we had increased Russian hybrid aggression, in order to undermine the already adopted values in the Western Balkans - said Đukanović.
The president pointed out that the situation in the Western Balkans is worse than seven or eight years ago, which should worry us all.
In all conversations with European and NATO leaders, I said that there is no vacuum in geopolitics. If the EU and NATO are not present in an area, that area will be penetrated by a third party. In this case it was Russia and it was doing it very aggressively. Today, unfortunately, I can say that reform processes in the Western Balkans are much slower, reform efforts are much smaller. Those efforts that would lead our country to membership in the European Union have lost momentum. Fortunately, a few years ago we achieved our first goal, membership in NATO, but we are stagnating on the way to the EU, along with other countries - said Đukanović.
He pointed out that in the Western Balkans we have an obvious replica of what Russia wants to do in its region.
In the Balkans, we have an attempt to create a "Serbian world" based on the model of the "Russian world", territories that Russia wants to annex in its region. Russia is trying to revise the history of the countries of its region in order to achieve the dominance and influence that the Soviet Union once had. Serbia is trying to do the same in its region. These are definitely retrograde policies, those who do not want to govern their countries, but their nations. And that then comes down to meddling in the politics of other countries, as we see in the region, where Serbia is trying to rule and question itself in Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, and North Macedonia. Unfortunately, this policy does not yet receive an adequate response from our partners from the West - said the president.
As he said, the Western partners have clearly recognized the threat of Russia in its neighborhood, but they fail to see that they are trying to "install" a similar or the same policy in the Western Balkans.
He said that he supports the accelerated and dedicated path of Ukraine towards Ukraine, along with a fundamental analysis of Ukraine's need for membership in NATO.
I believe that these processes will be an integral part of a future peace agreement on Ukraine - said Đukanović.
In the light of the current presidential elections and possible Russian influence on them, he said that he would like to be able to confirm that Russia is not interfering, but that this is just an illusion.
The "Russian world" is the same as the "Serbian world", Russian politics is essentially the same as Serbian politics in its region, and the Orthodox Churches of Serbia and Russia play a big role in that. Both the Serbian and Russian churches today are negligibly religious organizations, and absolutely political organizations, both. I am sorry that all my warnings, since 2016, did not have a more adequate response in some western addresses. And this is not about Russophobia. I hope that we will emerge victorious from all these problems and challenges and preserve the dominant Euro-Atlantic path of the country and the region - added the President of Montenegro.
M. J.