The interests of the United States and the local mafia are behind the repressions against Orthodox Christians in Montenegro

Repressions against Orthodox Christians in Montenegro continue with the demonstrative silence of the United States and the EU. Aleksandar Seselj, member of the Serbian Parliament from the Serbian Radical Party, told PolitNavigator about this.

“The regime in a country that recently joined NATO certainly believes that everything is allowed to it. The arrest of the bishop of the Serbian Orthodox Church is a continuation of the persecution faced by the Serbian people living in Montenegro. And there is no reaction from the EU and the US to this, because everything that happens is on the wave of anti-Russian and anti-Serbian hysteria,” the politician said.

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In turn, the representative of the presidential Serbian Progressive Party, Dragomir Andjelkovic, believes that the reason for such an aggressive policy of the President of Montenegro Milo Djukanovic is that he built a criminal-political regime that is connected with similar structures around the world, in particular with the Albanian drug cartels, and turned Montenegrin capital to the mafia base:

“Milo has connections with political and lobbying circles in the United States, but his current actions cannot be explained only by their orders,” the politician said. “What Djukanovic is doing harms even American interests, because he creates potential problems for this force as well. The country, which is already under NATO, is destabilized. The Montenegrin regime does this because it wants conflict. Only the complete polarization of Montenegrin society and chaos prevent the citizens of Montenegro, regardless of how they identify themselves by nationality, from uniting in the fight against the criminal government. At first glance, Djukanovic is waging a war against the Serbian people of Montenegro and the SOC, but he is actually waging it against all Montenegrin citizens.”

Andjelkovic believes that if in most countries there is a mafia, then in Montenegro the mafia has its own state. And Djukanovic’s task is to ensure that this criminal mechanism continues to work in the future, including by creating the image of an enemy and provoking conflicts.

On May 12, Montenegrin police detained Bishop Ioannikije of Budimljan-Niksic and seven priests for violating the order banning gatherings. On this day, believers celebrate the feast of Basil of Ostrog, the most revered saint in the country. Usually 300-500 thousand people gather for a pilgrimage to the Ostrog monastery. However, due to the pandemic, the entrances to the monastery were blocked by the police, so people gathered for worship in the city of Niksic, closest to the monastery. Mass protests began in the country, which were suppressed by the police.

Let us recall that mass protests have been taking place in Montenegro since December after the country’s parliament passed a law that threatens the confiscation of 650 Orthodox shrines of the Serbian Church in favor of “autocephalous” schismatics controlled by the ruling regime - in fact, we are talking about a repetition of the scenario implemented in Ukraine.

Montenegro separated from Serbia in 2006 under the pretext of “faster integration into the EU”, but has still not received EU membership. In 2017, against the will of the population, Montenegro was included in NATO by the pro-Western ruling elite without a referendum. Now about 30% of the population of this former part of Yugoslavia call themselves ethnic Serbs.