Montenegro PM: Russia's acts 'destructive and primitive'
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Montenegro's prime minister on Wednesday called Russia's expulsion of a Montenegrin official "destructive and primitive" and stressed it won't change the tiny Balkan nation's pro-Western course.
Dusko Markovic was reacting in parliament to the ban of a senior Montenegrin ruling party official, Miodrag Vukovic, who was prevented from changing planes at a Moscow airport over the weekend.
Russia's foreign ministry has said Vukovic was kept overnight in a transit zone at Domodedovo International Airport on his way to a meeting in Belarus because Montenegro had joined the European Union's sanctions against Moscow over its actions in Ukraine.
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Vukovic returned to Montenegro on Monday.
Markovic said he has heard that Moscow has compiled a "secret" list of Montenegrins who are banned from traveling to Russia. Montenegrin media said it contains some 70 names.
A spokeswoman for the Russian embassy in Montenegro, Yelizaveta Borisova, told the Russian TASS news agency that any attempts by Montenegrin media to draw a list of "undesirable" Montenegrin citizens "holds no ground."
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Montenegro was a close ally of Russia but is set to become NATO's 29th member in June. Russia has threatened economic and political retaliation.
"Such attitude against a country which wants to self-determine its future is disappointing," Markovic said. "I have never registered such a level of destruction, primitivism. It reflects the character of that (Russian) regime."
"We will certainly not falter on our (pro-Western) commitment," he added.
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Montenegro has said Russia was behind a foiled coup attempt in October to prevent it from joining NATO, which Moscow denies.