Eurasia

Albanian courts continue to issue lenient verdicts in cases involving corruption in the judiciary, hobbling Albania’s fight against the phenomenon.A court in the city of Fier earlier this week freed three suspects found guilty of a an attempt to bribe Albania’s Supreme Court. Although prosecutors proved that the three defendants …

The new so-called Democratic Front, which hopes to coordinate opposition to the government in Montenegro, will be headed by former foreign minister Miodrag Lekic, it was confirmed.Miodrag Lekic, Montenegro’s former foreign minister, is to coordinate a new opposition coalition, the Democratic Front, Andrija Mandic, chairman of the opposition New Serbian …

Macedonia has now joined the Russian-led South Stream gas pipeline project, the Vice Prime Minister Zoran Stavreski said in Russia, confirming that Russia and Gazprom, the company in charge of the project, have now given the green light.”There’s no more dilemma – Macedonia is joining the international gas pipeline corridor …

State Department official is heading to Belgrade to try to break the deal on a nationalist-led government between the Progressives and the Socialists.Philip Reeker, Deputy Assistant Secretary for European and Eurasian Affairs, is coming for a three-day visit to Belgrade on Tuesday to persuade leaders of the two biggest parties, …

Civic group slaps lawsuits on half the members of the Macedonian parliament for having supported a recently adopted Lustration Law that they describe as unconstitutional.A group of intellectuals, part of the civil initiative Citizens for European Macedonia, GEM, has submitted law suits against MPs from the ruling parties, including the …

According USAID’s 2011 civil society sustainability index, Albanian NGOs are increasingly shut out of the corridors of power and have little means of influencing public policy.The report by USAID makes grim reading for Albanian NGOs and civil society pressure groups. Despite efforts by NGO’s in 2011 to open up dialogue …

Milan Rocen has confirmed that he is bowing out, following the country’s recent achievements in advancing its EU and NATO membership prospects.One day after he announcing his intended withdrawal to the daily newspaper, Pobjeda, Rocen officially confirmed his decision on Monday at the opening of the fifth diplomatic “Gavro Vukovic” …

Twenty eight victims of Operation Flash, a Croatian military campaign conducted in May 1995, were exhumed last week in western Slavonia, Croatia.According to the Croatian government’s Administration for Imprisoned and Missing Persons, the remains were exhumed between June 26 and 29 in the village of Donji Rajic in western Slavonia. …

Kosovo will become fully independent in September, the International Steering Group, ISG, which oversees the newborn country, announced on Monday.The group of 25 states, which have been overseeing Kosovo since it declared independence from Serbia in 2008, said that the country had successfully implemented the provisions of the UN Comprehensive …

Families of the victims say they will fight the plans by the Dutch Defence Ministry to appeal a verdict under which it was found responsible for the deaths of three Bosniaks in the Srebrenica genocide.Klaas Meijer, a spokesperson for the Dutch Ministry of Defence, told journalists last week that the …