Whoever thinks that Russian influence has weakened when Montenegro or Northern Macedonia accessed NATO, definitely does not know much about Russia or its functioning. Russian influence has just strengthened here during the last two years, assessed Savo Kenetera, the President of the Atlantic Council of Montenegro.

In an interview for Oslobođenje, Kentera stated that Russia had a very well-conceived strategy and a very good game that they play wisely, using disinformation.

Last year before the election, we identified right here in Montenegro the best example of probably one of the biggest disinformation campaigns and hybrid war coming from Russia, which produced very good results. What happened to us, tomorrow may happen to any NATO member state and that is why everyone should learn from our mistakes, said Kentera.

President of the Atlantic Council of Montenegro reflected on the benefits of Montenegrin NATO membership, repeating that the first results of the membership will be visible after five years.

However, Kentera says that some of the results occurred and were visible long before those five years. Above all, they reflected in a democratic government change. It’s something that no one in Montenegro could have imagined, Kentera added.

While commenting on the situation in the region, Kentera said that it is only when Bosnia and Herzegovina become a NATO member state as well as Serbia, i.e. when this story complete, that we can talk about the true stability of the whole region. Here, everything is very interlaced, just like in the case of communicating vessels. Therefore, it is important in that context that Bosnia and Herzegovina finally put an end to this issue. Until then, everything will be fragile. Kentera thinks that all parties in Bosnia and Herzegovina will be obliged, sooner or later, to consider what is the national interest and not just their personal one.

When it comes to Serbia, he said that this country had already realized that it could not play on two fronts, or in their case, on three. It is in the best interest of the Serbian citizens, and also of the whole region, that Serbia, as perhaps the most prominent factor in the Western Balkans in terms of stability and everything else, decides to build its future towards West, the ACM President thinks.

Kentera expressed his pleasure that the Balkans will be one of the new US administration’s priorities, since it has not been the case so far. That is why I expect from new administration, together with the EU, not to be passive but much more active, he concluded.