McCain flashback: Russia threat is dead serious. Montenegro coup and murder plot proves it U.S. election hack last year was part of Putin’s long-term campaign to destabilize the West.

John McCain | Opinion contributor

Editor's note: This column was originally published on June 29, 2017.

Vladimir Putin’s Russia is on the offensive against Western democracy. Russia invaded Georgia in 2008 and Ukraine in 2014. Russia attacked America’s 2016 election, attempted to interfere in France’s 2017 election, and is expected to do the same in German and other future European elections.

But perhaps the most disturbing indication of Putin’s violent ambitions is what happened in October 2016 in the small Balkan country of Montenegro, when Russian intelligence operatives plotted to overthrow the democratically elected government of Montenegro and murder its prime minister.

Why would Putin go this far? Russia viewed Montenegro’s pursuit of European Union and NATO membership as both insulting and threatening. After all, Montenegro was once part of Russia’s traditional Slavic ally, Serbia. The country has long been a favorite for Russian tourists. Indeed, Russian politicians and oligarchs are reported to own as much as 40% of the real estate in Montenegro.

Montenegro is also strategically located on the Adriatic Sea. Russia unsuccessfully sought a naval base in Montenegro a few years ago. But if Montenegro joined NATO following the election, the entire Adriatic Sea would fall within NATO’s borders.

Montenegro’s entry into NATO would also send a signal that membership was a real possibility for other nations of the Western Balkans. That's why, in Russia’s eyes, Montenegro’s Oct. 16 election was a last chance to stop it from joining NATO and to reassert Russian influence in southeastern Europe. Few would have guessed how far Russia was willing to go. But now we know.

This month, a Montenegrin court accepted indictments against two Russians and 12 other people for their roles in the coup attempt. The American people must be aware of the allegations made in these indictments, which are now public. Pieced together, they reveal not only another blatant attack on democracy by the Russian government, but also an unmistakable warning that Putin will do whatever it takes to achieve his ambition to restore the Russian empire.

According to the indictments, two members of the Russian military intelligence agency, the GRU, took over a plot to destabilize Montenegro sometime in 2016 in league with Montenegrin opposition politicians and Serbian nationalists. One of the leading Serb plotters was brought to Moscow multiple times, once on a ticket paid for with funds sent from a Western Union on the same street as GRU headquarters in Moscow.

The plan was this:

As Election Day protests were under way in front of the Montenegrin parliament, a group of 50 armed men, recruited by the Russian GRU agents and wearing police uniforms, would ambush and kill the members of Montenegro’s Special Anti-Terrorist Unit to prevent them from interfering with the coup. The armed men would then proceed to the parliament, where they'd begin shooting at members of the police defending the building.

Led by the coup plotters, the protesters would then storm parliament and declare victory for the opposition. Within 48 hours, a new government would be formed and arrests would be made across the capital, including of Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic. If the prime minister could not be captured, he'd be killed.

It appears the plot might even have involved trying to blame the United States for the violence. An Orlando company was contacted about providing security services in the Montenegrin capital during the election. One can only speculate that American security personnel on the ground during a coup would have made excellent patsies for stories on Sputnik and Russia Today.

Fortunately, the plan never got off the ground. Several days before Election Day, one of the plotters got cold feet and informed the Montenegrin authorities. Arrests were made, and the plot was disrupted. In the aftermath, the Russian GRU agents tried to hire an assassin to kill Montenegro’s prime minister, but to no avail. The agents eventually made their way back to Moscow.

This heinous plot should be a warning to every American that we cannot treat Russia’s interference in our 2016 election as an isolated incident. We have to stop looking at this through the warped lens of politics and see this attack on our democracy for what it is: just one phase of Putin’s long-term campaign to weaken the United States, to destabilize Europe, to break the NATO alliance, to undermine confidence in Western values, and to erode any and all resistance to his dangerous view of the world.

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It won’t be long before Putin takes interest in another American election. The victim may be a Republican. It may be a Democrat. To Putin, it won’t matter as long as he achieves his dark and divisive goals.

We must take our own side in this fight — not as Republicans, not as Democrats, but as Americans. The Senate passed strong new sanctions against Russia this month by an overwhelming 97-2 vote. I hope the House will delay no further, send this bill to the president, and send a message to Vladimir Putin that America will stand strong in defense of our democracy.

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., is the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee.

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