Latvian bank allegedly used to support Montenegro coup attempt

Citing unnamed Latvian officials, the allegation is that a Latvian bank channeled money from Russia to pay for an attempted coup, the story of which has been reported widely elsewhere and which resulted in the arrest of 20 Serbs, suspected of working under contract to Russia.

Serbian law enforcement said it had recovered significant sums in cash. 

The Russian government has denied that it played any role in the bizarre sequence of events that led to the abortive coup attempt just before Montenegro was due to be granted full NATO membership.

“The money which flowed through Latvia was possibly used to finance the coup in Montenegro,” said one of the anonymous Latvian officials quoted by Reuters. The name of the bank involved was not specified.

It is the latest in a remarkable series of links between Latvian banks and a bewildering selction of the world's major news stories from North Korea's nuclear program to the murder of Sergey Magnitsky. 

From June 5 NATO jets will patrol the skies over Montenegro in much the same way they do over the Baltic states.