Serbian DefMin denies military presence in Montenegro

Tamara Marković/Nova.rs

The Serbian Defense Ministry on Tuesday denied any joint activities with the military of Montenegro or any presence of its personnel in that neighboring country.

“The Defense Ministry states in response to ill-intentioned claims in the public that reports of Serbian military personnel moving illegally through Montenegro are absolutely untrue,” a press release said.

Montenegrin media reported that the Serbian military police special purpose unit Cobras was in Montenegro along with agents from Serbia’s top civilian security and intelligence agency (BIA) for a “final security risk assessment of the enthronement of Serbian Orthodox Church Montenegro-Littoral Bishop Joanikije in Cetinje on September 5.

The Montenegrin government’s press office also denied the reports on Tuesday.

The enthronement ceremony is set to be held in the Cetinje monastery which is claimed by both the SPC and the unrecognized Montenegrin Orthodox Church which is headed by a defrocked SPC priest. Montenegrin nationalists are opposed to the presence of the SPC in the country despite the fact that its Montenegro-Littoral Bishopric has been in place for centuries and the fact that Montenegro’s prince-bishop rulers were SPC priests over the centuries.