It is believed that the plot was designed as a last-ditch attempt by the Montenegrin pro-Serbian and pro-Russian opposition to prevent Montenegro’s accession to NATO,[5] a move stridently opposed by Russia’s government that had issued direct threats to Montenegro concerning such eventuality.[6][7][8][9][10] This theory was re-affirmed by the court verdict handed down in 2019.[11]

On the eve of 16 October 2016, the day of the parliamentary election in Montenegro, a group of 20 Serbian and Montenegrin citizens, including the former head of Serbian Gendarmery Bratislav Dikić, were arrested;[12][13] some of them, along with other persons, including two Russian citizens, were later formally charged by the authorities of Montenegro with an attempted coup d’état. In early November 2016, Montenegro’s special prosecutor for organised crime and corruption, Milivoje Katnić, alleged that “a powerful organisation” that comprised about 500 people from Russia, Serbia and Montenegro was behind the coup plot.[14] In February 2017, Montenegrin officials accused the Russian ‘state structures’ of being behind the attempted coup, which allegedly envisaged an attack on the country’s parliament and assassination of prime minister Milo Đukanović.[15][16]