Filip Vujanović

Speaking from Belgrade, where he found safe haven despite repeated demands from Montenegro for his extradition, 65-year-old Marovic, once a key ally of Montenegrin President Milo Djukanovic, said that his family had been "brought to the brink" of financial collapse by the scandal that enveloped him in 2015 when he was arrested on corruption charges.

While MPs in parliament in Montenegro debated the controversial religious law, many citizens, opposition supporters and Serbian Orthodox priests took to the streets to express anger over what they call a plan to steal the Serbian Orthodox Church's property in Montenegro.

Preliminary results of Sunday's presidential elections in Montenegro show Milo Djukanovic, the leader of the ruling Democratic Party of Socialists, DPS, has won another term as head of state after serving as Prime Minister six times and as President once.

Montenegro's main pro-Serbian opposition group, the Democratic Front, has accused the country's pro-Western government of treason after Podgorica and Pristina agreed to set up an working group "to correct if necessary" the previously agreed border between the two countries.

Montenegrin President Filip Vujanovic and President of the self-proclaimed Republic of Kosovo Hashim Thaci have signed a joint statement urging the parliament in Pristina to ratify a border deal struck back in 2015, the Montenegrin president's press service said on Friday.

Ivan Brajovic, the speaker of Montenegro's parliament, has set April 15 as the date for the country's next presidential election, with a possible second round two weeks later if no candidate wins more than 50 percent of the first round vote.

Montenegro will hold presidential elections on April 15, after the speaker of parliament officially called the elections on Friday.

"I believe that elections will be held in a positive and democratic atmosphere and that we, all together, will prove why Montenegro is a leader in the region," Brajovic said, according to Radio Free Europe, RFE.

On January 15, Montenegrin head Philip Vujanovic will be on a one-day official visit to Bulgaria at the invitation of President Rumen Radev. At the "St. Alexander Nevsky "will be the official ceremony of Vujanovic. He will bring a wreath to the Unknown Soldier's Monument, the presidential press secretary announced.

President Rumen Radev held consecutive meetings with the Heads of State of Kosovo and Montenegro Hashim Thaci and Filip Vujanović at Dondukov 2, reported BGNES.

American Vice President Mike Pence praised Montenegro's NATO membership as a "historical achievement" during a meeting with Montenegrin Prime Minister Dusko Markovic in Podgorica on Wednesday.

"NATO is made up of big and small states, but the US does not have small allies," Pence said, adding that his visit illustrates the US' support for the Western Balkans.