When the southeastern European country Yugoslavia broke up along its Croat, Serb, and Slovenian ethnic lines in the early 1990s – with Croatia, Bosnia, Slovenia, and Macedonia breaking off – only Serbia and Montenegro remained to make up the emerging Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY).
After years of violent rule by Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic, FRY was transformed in 2003 into Serbia and Montenegro, a loose confederation of two republics with a federal parliament.
Montenegro, which has a Montenegrin plurality, declared its intention to break from the confederation in May 2006 and immediately held a referendum, which ended with a vote for independence in June. Serbia, overwhelmingly Serbian, subsequently declared its independence as the successor state a few days later. Both declarations have been acknowledged as acceptable by the international community.
