Balkans

The deterioration in Czech-Russian relations reached a nadir this week as Prague ordered scores of Russian ‘diplomats’ to leave. Starting a new job is always stressful – it always takes a few weeks to get your feet under the table. Much sympathy must go to Jakub Kulhanek then, who was …

Athens is lending a hand to help defend Saudi Arabia amid continued barrages as the United States moves its assets elsewhere. Greece will lend a US-made Patriot missile air defense system to Saudi Arabia to help protect energy infrastructure, according to an agreement signed by the two countries in Riyadh …

Critics see echoes of Albania’s feared Communist-era ‘Sigurimi’ in the discovery of a database that purportedly belongs to the ruling Socialists and contains detailed personal data of almost a million voters, each of them assigned to a party apparatchik often on the public payroll. The contents of a database leaked …

Bosnia and Herzegovina has one of the world’s most notoriously dysfunctional constitutions. Although at 5,000 words the document is also one of the world’s shortest constitutions, brevity is not always a benefit. The constitution was prepared by US lawyers overseeing the peace negotiations ending the Bosnian war in Dayton, Ohio …

Boris Tadic lost his presidential post in 2012 and has been demonized by his successors ever since – but despite growing irrelevancy, he’s still eyeing another starring role. “We will see each other in some new movie,” Boris Tadic said in May 2012 after losing the presidential race to Tomislav …

For years on, Socialist chief Edi Rama and Democratic Party boss Lulzim Basha face each other again in a parliamentary election – and not much has changed in the meantime, except the slogans. As Albania heads towards parliamentary elections on April 25, Socialist Party chief and Prime Minister Edi Rama …

After the latest in a decade-long series of unsuccessful attempts to pass a law banning the denial of the Srebrenica genocide, Bosnia and Herzegovina’s top international official could take action to impose legislation from above. At a session last week of the Bosnian parliament’s House of Peoples, Serb and Croat …

A report funded by the government of Bosnia’s Serb-dominated Republika Srpska entity claims Serbs were subjected to ethnic cleansing in wartime Sarajevo, but its allegations differ from facts established by courts about crimes during the siege. The allegations in the report published this month by the Commission for Investigating the …

There is no legislation preventing freed war criminals from being elected to office or appointed to a public service job in Bosnia and Herzegovina – but experts warn that the situation causes fear among war victims and undermines the rule of law. etails of the crimes of Blagoje Simic, a …

Authorities look determined to equip the Balkan country’s outdated military with modern weapon systems – even if some query the cost in a time of economic difficulty. NATO’s newest member state, North Macedonia, which joined the alliance last year, is on the way to modernising its military, though doing so …