Balkans

Restrictions on media freedom, unpunished violations by officials and alleged violence by police continued to be problems in south-east European countries in 2020, said a new US State Department report.

The US State Department’s 2020 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices, which was published on Tuesday, warned that countries in the Balkans and south-east Europe have continuing problems with media freedom, censorship and violence against journalists, while officials are not being sanctioned for rights violations.

Ahead of the war crimes trial of ex-President Hashim Thaci and three other former guerrilla leaders, there is widespread distrust of the Hague-based Kosovo Specialist Chambers, which many Kosovo Albanians see as biased.

Rimland or “coastal zone” is the main point of collision of geopolitical forces. For the geopolitics of the Sea, the ability to deter the forces of the Land from their presence in the coastal zone of the Rimland is of primary importance. Since its founding in 1949, the NATO alliance has been systematically expanding and seeking to establish control over the sea areas in order to weaken the land, guided by the “anaconda” principle, which was formulated by the American admiral and classic of “maritime” geopolitics Alfred Mahan. Its essence is to block enemy territories from the sea and along coastlines, which provides strategic superiority over the enemy, leading him to gradual exhaustion.

Serbia: Iran’s Entry Point to the Balkans

Iranian military activity in Europe’s neighborhood is not limited to supporting Russia’s war in Ukraine

Transforming itself from a net arms importer into a burgeoning arms exporter, Tehran is engaged in opportunistic behavior across conflict zones, ranging from Ukraine to tense, fragile regions, like the Balkans. Eyeing the Balkan weapons market, Tehran has focused on the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) sector. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) is the main military actor involved in the proliferation of Iran’s indigenous drone program; as such, Tehran’s entry to the Balkan region’s drone industry opens the door to IRGC involvement across NATO’s southeastern flank.

Serbia is negotiating with partners from Azerbaijan on the amount and prices of gas that will be received through the Serbia-Bulgaria gas interconnection, the Ministry of Mining and Energy confirmed for Demostat .

The situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina is becoming increasingly complicated, not just because of the intensification of the armed conflict in Ukraine, but also because of the process of establishment of the government after the general elections in October 2022.