Eurasia

KOSOVO Fatmir Sejdiu says all political parties in Kosovo should urge voters to refrain from any kind of action that could jeopardize the electoral process. The Kosovo Albanian spoke about the local elections scheduled to be held in November after his meeting with Ramus Haradinaj, the leader of the opposition …

SERBIA Interior Minister Ivica Dačić stated that Serbia will in September meet all the remaining criteria for abolishing visas. This will be necessary for Serbian citizens to travel to all the Schengen area countries.

SERBIA Rasim Ljajić reacted today to reports in some Belgrade media that the Serbian police (MUP) recently carried out an operation in Novi Sad to arrest Ratko Mladić. The head of the Council for Cooperation with the Hague Tribinal said that “there is no use reporting on fruitless operations”.

BiH The Bosnian Interior Ministry and the country’s Prosecution office have no knowledge of an alleged plan to assassinate RS PM Milorad Dodik. Dodik is heading the government of Bosnia’s Serb entity, and his life was reportedly threaded by the recently arrested criminal group led by Darko Elez.

MOLDOVA The recently elected new Speaker of the Moldovan Parliament, Mihai Ghimpu, has stated on the Echo of Moscow radio this past weekend that the legislative forum shall not be promoting the idea of Moldova’s unification with Romania.

MOLDOVA The “Moldova and Russia” Association for Friendship and Cooperation has sent an address to the deputies of the new Parliament of Moldova. Chairman Yury Maximov told a news conference in Infotag today that the Association, which is marking its 15th anniversary this year, traditionally sends such messages to new …

TURKEY Deputy PM Bülent Arınç lashes opposition claims of ‘treason’ due to his government’s Kurdish initiative and praises the so-called democratic move, using the Kurdish expression ‘Xwede şi te razi,’ which means ‘thank you’ in Kurdish Deputy Prime Minister Bülent Arınç censured opposition claims of ‘treason’ and praised the so-called …

TURKEY Turkey-skeptic European leaders should change their stance while Turkish government leaders should recommit themselves to the reform process, a group of experts recommended Monday for putting Turkish-European relations back on track. The latest report by the Independent Commission on Turkey, which is chaired by Finland’s 2008 Nobel Peace Prize …

ALBANIA Albanian parliament is set to hold a constitutive session Monday following the June 28 parliamentary elections. The election-winning Democrats secured 70 seats in the 140-seat parliament, the Republican Party and one of the exiled Albanians from Greece secured one seat each. The opposition Socialists won 66 seats, with 4 …

RUSSIA President Dmitry Medvedev on Monday instructed the head of the energy giant Gazprom to not change an already signed contract with Ukraine on transit fees for delivery of Russian gas crossing Ukrainian territory. Alexei Miller, CEO of Gazprom, told Medvedev that Kiev proposed changing the contract signed in January, …