Photo: US Navy / Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Leonardo Carrillo
A senior Russian parliamentarian told Bosnia's parliament on Monday that NATO enlargement across the Balkan countries would continue to undermine the security and stability of the region, according to Reuters.
Valentina Matviyenko addressed the upper house of the Bosnian parliament but singled out neighboring Montenegro, which recently became a NATO member last year.
Matviyenko also criticized Macedonia's aspirations to join the United States-led military alliance.
“Montenegro’s joining NATO against the will practically of half of its citizens has become the harshest violation of the basic principles of modern democracy,” Matviyenko, speaker of the Russian parliament’s upper house, said on Monday.
Matviyenko also said that Macedonia was trying the "same dangerous experiment" as Montenegro which is a step that "is leading only towards further destabilization of the situation in the region. It undermines the system of European security.”
Many Western governments view NATO and the European Union membership as the best way of moving forward while preserving peace across the Balkans, which endured decades of wars and violence after the break-up of Yugoslavia in the 1990s.
Montenegro hopes to join the European Union in 2025, the same year as Serbia.
Croatia, another former Yugoslav republic, joined the EU in April 2009.
Russia is also likely angry over the fact that both Macedonia and Montenegro expelled Russian diplomats as a show of unity with Western governments after the nerve toxin poisoning of a former Russian double agent and his daughter on British soil.
The British government blamed the attack on Moscow, though the Kremlin has repeatedly denied any involvement.
After the expulsions in the Balkans, Russia expelled one Montenegrin diplomat and summoned embassy officials from Macedonia for an emergency meeting.
Montenegrin prosecutors previously said that a group comprised of Russian agents and Serb nationalists were plotting to kill former Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic during a coup attempt in 2016 in order to prevent Montenegro from joining NATO.
Moscow dismissed such allegations as absurd.
Bosnia plans to activate a NATO pre-accession Membership Action Plan but its plans for the membership process have been blocked by Bosnian Serbs who argue that Russia should be the main ally of the country.
Last month, Bosnian security agencies banned leaders from the Russian Night Wolves motorcycle club from entering the country due to security concerns.
The same club is already under U.S. sanctions for its role in supporting and fighting alongside the pro-Russian separatists' insurgency in Ukraine.
The group blocked access to the main routes of Sevastopol and also took part in attacks on a natural gas facility and the naval headquarters in the Ukrainian city.
-WN.com, Maureen Foody
