Montenegrin President Milo Djukanovic has said the Serbian Orthodox Church is a divisive factor in both Montenegro and the region, saying there are “many” reasons for the war and that “the reason can be found in almost any country”.
In an interview for the Greek newspaper Kathimerini, Djukanovic said that, in addition to “unresolved issues” from the period of the break-up of Yugoslavia, there was “a favorable environment for destructiveness and stagnation in the European integration of the entire region in recent years”, and that in Montenegro “oppressed by the destructiveness of Greater Serbia and Russia these five, six years, we have a political crisis that is not coming to an end”.
Djukanovic emphasizes that “throughout the history of the Balkans, it has never been a problem to find a reason for a new war” and that the “Russian World” project in the Balkans is called the “Serbian World”, while Montenegro “is considered a natural part of it”.
“I think that these ideologies and their promoters are clearly seen today. Only someone who does not see them doesn’t see them. The attempted coup in Montenegro in 2016, which we resisted without anyone’s help, was just a warning of the horrors we are seeing in Ukraine. Russia is renewing its historical fullness, uniting the Russian world in its entirety of Russians, Belarusians and Malorussians – as Russia’s war against Ukraine these days shows its imperial ambitions,” he said.
He added that at the same time, the Metropolitan of the Serbian Orthodox Church, Joanikije, declared that “events in Ukraine are the result of disbelief in God” and that “Montenegro is predicted to be a small Ukraine”.
“They are following the Russian Church, which unreservedly supports the invasion of Ukraine. Serbian priests on social media ‘applaud’ Chechen President Kadyrov, who sent his special forces to Kiev. Pro-Russian forces in Serbia, Montenegro , Republika Srpska, are holding rallies in support of Putin and celebrating the ‘deeds’ of the Russian army.
The media infrastructure, with great financial support for their activity, has long been established in the region. “The centers are in Belgrade and Banja Luka, from where the activity spreads in Montenegro and throughout the region,” he said.
Asked how he sees the end of the war in Ukraine, Djukanovic said that “neither those who started this war, nor those who are obliged to defend themselves, have an answer to this question”, concluding that “Russia would be the biggest loser, also viewed from the historical point of view … ”
Asked if he saw similarities between Slobodan Milosevic and Vladimir Putin in terms of exercising power, Djukanovic said the deployment of tanks and the siege of Vukovar and Sarajevo in the early 1990s had been copied today in Kiev, Kharkiv and Mariupol in Ukraine.
He added that “the cult of the leader is the same as Milosevic’s”, saying it was “interesting to look for answers on how Russia got into all this thirty years later according to the concept of the major Balkan state projects of the 1990s, and how it did not learn nothing from the mistakes of others “.