Pro-Western President Milo Djukanovic, who has held top positions in Montenegro for nearly 30 years, has accused Serbia and Russia of using the Serbian Orthodox Church to undermine the government's bid for EU membership.
This was reported by Reuters, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
Djukanovic insists that religious processions of thousands in protest against the adoption of an anti-Orthodox law by parliament were not intended to protect the churches and monasteries of the SOC, but were carried out “in order to question the independence of Montenegro.”
“Moscow has unequivocally declared its interests in the ongoing (religious) problem in Montenegro,” Djukanovic commented on the support of the Orthodox of Montenegro from Metropolitan Hilarion and the visit to Montenegro of the Primate of the UOC-MP, Metropolitan Onufriy.
In addition, Djukanovic accused Belgrade of allegedly reviving the nationalist concept of Greater Serbia, which he said contributed to the Balkan Wars of the 1990s and the collapse of the former Yugoslavia.
This statement raised eyebrows among Serbian Prime Minister Ana Brnabic.
“I am surprised by the rhetoric of President Djukanovic... Serbia has long abandoned the 1990s and turned to the future,” Brnabic said, adding that Belgrade only demanded for Serbs in Montenegro the right to their own language and religion.