Balkans

Military veteran Zdravko Ponos, an opposition candidate for president in an election in April, tells BIRN that Serbia will struggle to recover from five more years of Aleksandar Vucic. As a candidate for Serbia’s highest office, Zdravko Ponos could hardly have a better biography: a highly-educated military man, former head …

Hungary’s flirtation with the Russian president did not start with Orban, but it is the current premier who has turned it into an unequal marriage. How did a politician who launched his career on the back of anti-Russian slogans end up becoming Putin’s main ally in the EU? In June …

The defining characteristic of Albania’s brutal communist regime was its morbid fixation with borders – and the memory of that claustrophobic world helps explains why, today, so many Albanians want to escape. Icrossed Albania’s borders on a cold day of January 1991, for the first time of my life. It …

At a moment of deep polarisation in Montenegro, authorities are being urged to address online extremism in the country’s new counter-terrorism strategy.Montenegro’s new counter-terrorism strategy must focus more on young people and the dangers of extremist content online, civil society groups say. Montenegro’s new Strategy for Preventing Radicalisation and Violent …

Greek-Turkish relations are not moving forward. The (Greek) prime minister may have started his administration believing that progress could be made, but today the impasse is obvious and no light can be seen at the end of the tunnel. Greece, Turkey and Cyprus have entered a pre-election trajectory. It has …

Hungary’s nationalist prime minister warned Saturday that a Russian invasion of Ukraine could send hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian refugees fleeing across the border into his country. Right-wing populist leader Viktor Orban, speaking in an annual address that this year kicked off his political campaign for Hungary’s parliamentary election on …

U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and other NATO defense ministers are slated to review plans for increasing allied troop numbers in southeastern Europe, the alliance’s top official said Friday. Among the moves on the table is the creation of a multinational battlegroup to be stationed in the Black Sea region, …

Recent moves by the Republika Srpska (RS, Serb entity) authorities to introduce a Law creating a parallel High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council (HJPC) are a clear attempt by the entity to unilaterally assume the constitutional responsibilities of the State, which would represent a violation of the constitution and legal order …

“The champion of our petrochemical industry.” So boasted Todor Zhivkov, then-communist leader of Bulgaria, when the country’s first oil refinery at Burgas on the Black Sea coast launched operations in 1963. Nearly six decades later, Bulgaria’s planned economy may be long gone, but the so-called champion continues refining oil into …

Cooperating with international agencies such as Europol is crucial if North Macedonia and the rest of the Western Balkans are to win the fight against terrorism and extremism. On many occasions, tackling terrorism and extremism has only been possible as a joint effort between governments, institutions, and security agencies. For …