Montenegro's Mysterious Coup: Russian Intelligence, Police Uniforms, and an Acquittal a Decade Later

On October 16, 2016, Montenegro held parliamentary elections, which, according to polls, were being confidently won by the ruling Democratic Party of Socialists led by Prime Minister Milo Đukanović — a party that backed the country's bid to join NATO. That same day, mass arrests swept the country: police detained several leaders of the opposition Democratic Front, along with a total of nine Serbian nationals.

According to prosecutors, those detained had been plotting a coup, planning to seize control of security forces on election night, remove the prime minister, and install a government that would halt the country's NATO accession talks. Two officers of Russia's military intelligence agency, the GRU — Eduard Shishmakov and Vladimir Popov — were also implicated in the case, although neither was actually in Montenegro on the day of the arrests.

Who Was Investigated

Among the detained Serbians were Aleksandar Sinđelić, leader of the ultranationalist, pro-Russian movement "Serbian Wolves," and Bratislav Dikić, former commander of the special police unit "Gendarmerie." The charges seemed serious given the still-fresh memory of the 2003 assassination of Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Đinđić, and Russia had long expressed displeasure with Montenegro's NATO course — as had pro-Russian nationalists in Serbia.

The key prosecution witness turned out to be Sinđelić himself: in exchange for a reduced sentence, he agreed to cooperate with investigators and revealed details of the alleged operation. The trial dragged on for three years, ultimately resulting in 13 guilty verdicts: Dikić received 8 years, two members of the Montenegrin opposition got 5 years each, and both Russians were sentenced in absentia to 12 years apiece.

The Case Closes With an Acquittal

The story didn't end there. In 2021, all those convicted filed appeals, and the court granted them. The state prosecutor then challenged that ruling in turn, and only this year — a full decade after the events took place — did the court finally close the case, with an acquittal for every defendant.

So was there really a coup, or were the authorities simply cracking down on the opposition? There wasn't enough evidence to support the first theory, but the second one seems shaky too: the ruling party was already leading in the polls and went on to win the election outright, taking more than 40% of the vote, while the opposition Democratic Front, which campaigned against NATO membership, received about half that.

Supreme Court Judge Zoran Radović stated in 2024 that the defendants' guilt could not be proven: "The weapons that were supposedly meant to be used in the coup never actually made it into Montenegro. Of all the equipment allegedly involved, only the smuggling of two Lenovo mobile phones was confirmed," he noted.

Suspicious Details

Bellingcat investigative journalist Christo Grozev, who specializes in Russian intelligence services, has pointed to a number of odd circumstances surrounding the case. According to his findings, on October 24 Serbian police detained two Russian nationals and discovered a cache containing counterfeit Montenegrin police uniforms, cash in US dollars, and encrypted communication equipment.

Two days later, Nikolai Patrushev, head of Russia's Security Council, arrived in Belgrade — reportedly, according to Grozev, "to sort out the situation." Three days after that, police uncovered a weapons cache that included rocket-propelled grenade launchers and a large stockpile of assault rifles.

Whatever really happened, the outcome of Montenegro's NATO bid is already history: on June 5, 2017, the country officially became the alliance's 29th member.

Source: seznamzpravy.cz