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Moscow says Montenegrin authorities stand behind anti-Russian campaign in country

MOSCOW, February 22. /TASS/. The authorities of Montenegro stand behind the latest anti-Russian information campaign in that country, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Wednesday.

The Russian diplomat thus commented on the media reports about the alleged involvement of Russian state bodies in an attempted coup d’etat in Montenegro.

"This campaign is not new. It is simply going through a new stage of its development," the diplomat said.

"Of course, Montenegrin authorities stand behind this campaign, as we understand," the spokeswoman said.

"Montenegrin Prime Minister Dusko Markovic could not help getting involved in the use of the thesis widely spread in the United States and the EU countries and accused Moscow and some Russian special services of interfering in the election processes in that county," the Russian diplomat said.

"Montenegrin Special Prosecutor Milivoje Katnic went even further and tried to develop this thought, mentioning the presence of FSB [Russia’s Federal Security Service] special forces on the territory of Montenegro," the spokeswoman said.

According to the Russian diplomat, all these statements are absolutely unfounded.

"Unfortunately, they are multiplied by the media actually with disregard for the Russian position and, if it is mentioned, this is done casually and disproportionately to the volume of the information that is published, proceeding from the data that are spread," the Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said.

"Naturally, neither Montenegrin officials nor Western media are providing any evidences that could confirm these allegations," the Russian diplomat said.

"We are stating that this misinformation is aggravated by the ever increasing number of publications while facts are absent. Meanwhile, the position of Russian officials is actually ignored," Zakharova said.

"All this, of course, is inflicting serious damage on the Russian-Montenegrin relations," the diplomat said.