Montenegro Prime Minister Dusko Markovic (centre) shakes hands and is welcomed to Nato during the Deposit of Montenegro's Instrument of Accession to Nato (under Shannon's arm), formally triggering Montenegro's membership in the Nato Alliance, yesterday.
Montenegro: Once the Balkan stronghold of pro-Russian sentiments, tiny Montenegro was yesterday silently celebrating its entry into Nato in a historic turn toward the West that has made the Kremlin furious.
Despite the Russian anger and a deep split within the nation of some 620,000 people over the issue, Montenegro formally become the 29th member of the Western military alliance at a ceremony in Washington yesterday.
To get there, Montenegro has stood up against its former ally Russia, which has sought to maintain strong historic, political and cultural influence in the Slavic country it considers a special zone of interest. Russia's Foreign Ministry said yesterday "Russia reserves the right to take counter-measures on the basis of reciprocity amid the Montenegrin authorities' hostile stance," according to the Russian state TASS news agency. It did not elaborate, but Russia has threatened economic and political retaliation, including a campaign to undermine the Montenegrin tourism industry, which relies heavily on Russian visitors. An estimated 200,000 Russians visit Montenegro every year and 80,000 Russians own property here.
Montenegro Prime Minister Dusko Markovic said during the ceremony in Washington that the Nato accession "is a historic event for a country and a nation which endured enormous sacrifices in the 19th and 20th centuries in order to defend their right to a free life; the right to decide on our own future; the right to be recognized by the world under our own name and with our national symbols."
Bringing Montenegro into Nato further diminishes Russia's influence in southeast Europe, and blocks it from the so-called "warm seas" in Europe that could be used as staging grounds for military interventions in the Middle East. The US State Department said Montenegro's membership "will support greater integration, democratic reform, trade, security, and stability with all of its neighbours." Russia has also banned imports of Montenegrin item and recently deported a ranking official from a Moscow airport. Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova recently warned potential Russian tourists that "there is an anti-Russian hysteria in Montenegro."
