Montenegrin President Milo Djukanovic said the Serbian Orthodox Church (SPC) is not a religious organization but a criminalized and paramilitary structure, shielded by people’s belief in God.

“By abusing their pure beliefs, the Church serves the darkest ideologies of the present. What the Kremlin is doing today, through the revision of history and the return to the Cold War era, along with the way in which it is doing it, causing crises, even in the Balkans, opening to Greater Serbian nationalism the illusion that it will get Kosovo back, and get Montenegro on top of that, Russia is making a serious chaos today. And with the help of implementing agencies such as the SPC,” Djukanovic said in an interview with the Podgorica-based Gradska TV.

Because of all this, the SPC is far from a religious organization, said the Montenegrin President.

Djukanovic said he respects people’s religious feelings but added that they do not need a middleman between them and God, especially not one like the SPC.

The SPC is on the wrong path and it will be held responsible for many misdeeds committed in former Yugoslavia over the past 30 years, said the Montenegrin President.