Balkans

Following announcements that Russian President Vladimir Putin has granted Russian citizenship to French actor Gerard Depardieu, Bozhidar Dimitrov, former Diaspora Minister and a famous nationalist historian, has urged Bulgaria’s Cabinet to move quickly with citizenship legislation. “The amendments to the Bulgarian Citizenship Act and the Foreign Investment Act connected with …

Croatia is to introduce official use of the Serbian language and script into about 20 areas of where Serbs make up more than a third of the population.Official use of the Serbian language and Cyrillic script will be introduced into about 20 Croatian municipalities where Serbs make up more than …

Political crisis continues in Macedonia as Social Democrat-led opposition says it will boycott local elections in March.Opposition parties led by the Social Democratic Party, SDSM, said they will not take part in the March local elections on the grounds that the Prime Minister, Nikola Gruevski, plans to rig the polls. …

Pristina says new regime will improve internal security and ease the path leading to eventual EU membership.Kosovo has established a visa regime for citizens of 87 countries, starting from July, which it says will have a positive impact on internal security and on the path toward EU accession. The system …

Zagreb has sent back Serbian indictments for war crimes against three top Croatian military officials, saying they aren’t valid.The Serbian war crimes prosecutor’s office issued the indictments against former Croatian interior minister Ivan Vekic, his top adviser Tomislav Mercep, and Vladimir Seks, the head of the war crisis headquarters in …

Spanish courts have approved the extradition to Serbia of Vladimir Milisavljevic, convicted in Serbia of involvement in the assassination of the late Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic.Spanish authorities have approved the handover of Vladimir Milisavljevic, aka Vlada “Budala” (“Fool”), to Serbia, 11 months since his arrest. Courts in Serbia have …

Customs in the port of Durres on Wednesday sequestered a container with contraband cigarettes coming from Singapore with an estimated value of €500,000.Media reports said customs agents became suspicious about the cargo after the company that had ordered the shipment failed to carry out customs procedures for several days. Inside …

Serbian Prime Minister Ivica Dacic says if local authorities in south Serbia don’t remove a memorial dedicated to ethnic Albanian fighters, the state will do so “by force”.Dacic ordered the authorities in the mainly Albanian towns of Bujanovac and Presevo in South Serbia to remove a monument dedicated to ethnic …

Serbian President’s visit to the Bosnian Serb entity, Republika Srpska, has ruffled feathers in the Bosnian capital.President Tomislav Nikolic and Prime Minister Ivica Dacic met top officials of Republika Srpska, RS, in Banja Luka on December 26 and discussed the “special relations” between Serbia and the Serb-dominated entity. Nikolic and …

As Kosovo Serbs lend support to Serbia’s ‘platform’ on Kosovo, the document is to go before parliament by January 7.After several hours of discussion, 150 representatives from the Serb-run north of Kosovo on Tuesday offered to support the Serbian government’s official platform for Kosovo. The platform demands a high level …