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Kremlin says allegations Moscow had role in Montenegro are ‘absurd’

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MOSCOW: The Kremlin on Monday dismissed allegations by Montenegro that Russia was involved in an attempted coup in the Adriatic republic last October as absurd and unsubstantiated.


“These (are) absurd accusations. ... We do not interfere in the internal affairs of other countries, including Montenegro,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters during a conference call. On election day last October, Montenegrin authorities arrested 20 people from neighbouring Serbia on charges of planning armed attacks against the state.


It later said Russian nationalists were also involved in a foiled plot to assassinate former prime minister Milo Djukanovic and bring an opposition figure to power.


On Sunday, Montenegro’s Special Prosecutor Milivoje Katnic said a Russian diplomat he identified as Eduard Shishmakov was involved in the plot.


Ukraine peace plan: Also on Monday, the Kremlin said it had no prior knowledge of a Ukrainian lawmaker’s peace plan for his country, which was detailed in the New York Times newspaper, and called it absurd anyway.


The US newspaper reported that Andrii Artemenko, a Ukrainian lawmaker, had sent a proposal to associates of US President Donald Trump that was designed to end a simmering conflict in eastern Ukraine between pro-Russian separatists and government forces.


According to the New York Times, the mooted plan would entail Russian forces withdrawing from eastern Ukraine and Ukrainian voters deciding in a referendum whether Crimea, which Moscow annexed from Ukraine in 2014, would be leased to Russia for a term of 50 or 100 years. Moscow denies it has any troops in Ukraine and has repeatedly said it will not even discuss the status of Crimea. — Reuters


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