Balkans

Since the fall of the Islamic State ‘caliphate’, piecemeal efforts by Balkan states to repatriate their nationals from refugee camps in Syria means more than 100 children are still living in squalid, unsafe conditions. With her three children, Floresha Rasha has a new home – a three-storey beachfront building ringed …

The fresh crisis in Moscow’s relations with the West is having a ripple effect in many countries and regions – including in the Balkans and Central Europe – where Russian and Western interests collide. In his first foreign policy speech, new US President Joe Biden summarized his international agenda in …

The two countries are set for renewed talks over Aegean maritime zones in early March. Turkey accused Greece’s air force of harassing a Turkish research ship in the Aegean Sea this week ahead of renewed talks over the two countries’ ongoing maritime dispute. Turkey’s Defense Ministry said Greek F-16s approached …

Slovakia’s febrile politics and incompetent handling of the pandemic has made it vulnerable to Russian mischief using its Sputnik vaccine. In January, Prime Minister Igor Matovič was still expressing confidence that Slovakia would have enough Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna vaccines for most of its adult population, and would only use the …

What’s new? Efforts to resolve the long-running dispute between Kosovo and Serbia over the former’s independence have foundered. EU-led talks brokered agreement on technical issues but have struggled to address core political questions. Washington’s mid-2020 mediation effort fell apart when Kosovo’s president had to step away because of war crimes charges. …

Under Aleksandar Vucic’s Progressives, the line between the state and organised crime has become increasingly blurred, raising the question – is Serbia a mafia state? According to the Hungarian sociologist Balint Magyar, in a ‘mafia state’ “The state itself, at the top, works as a criminal organisation.”

Joe Biden’s tactless message to Serbia on the need to recognise Kosovo won’t unnerve Belgrade – and risks pushing it further into the waiting arms of Russia and China. The 18th-century English dramatist Edward Moore may not be deeply ingrained on the collective memory of the Anglophone world, yet his …

Serbia’s power-hungry leader will be following the upcoming election of the next Patriarch closely – but the complex electoral system means there’s no guarantee he will get the candidate of his choice.

Court records in Bosnia reveal that prominent members of Serb nationalist Chetnik organisations have been charged with war crimes, while the Bosnian Security Ministry has warned that such groups are extremists who could pose a security risk.

Exasperation with Croatia’s failure to create an independent border-monitoring mechanism to investigate allegations of migrant rights abuses is growing – something which could harm the country’s bid to join the passport-free Schengen zone.