Kosovo: News, Politics & Issues

[Phoenix]

Correct me if I’m wrong, but all these agreements are abandoning Macedonians not only in Egaj and Prin but Vardar too..

In other words...all these agreements are abandoning Macedonians everywhere and that includes us in the diaspora.

It's amazing that those SDSM CUNTS and their supporters continue to sell this as the prize of the century...

[Risto the Great]

Kosovo President Is Indicted for War Crimes for Role in War With Serbia

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/24/world/europe/hashim-thaci-kosovo-war-crimes.html

President Hashim Thaci, who was scheduled to visit the White House on Saturday, faces 10 counts of war crimes brought by prosecutors at a special court in the Netherlands.

June 24, 2020

BERLIN — President Hashim Thaci of Kosovo, a guerrilla leader during Kosovo’s battle for independence from Serbia during the 1990s, was indicted on 10 counts of war crimes on Wednesday at a special court in the Netherlands. Prosecutors accused him and other former fighters of being “criminally responsible for nearly 100 murders.”

The charges, long anticipated, have yet to be accepted by judges at the court, but their timing came as a shock, both in the Balkans and in Washington. Mr. Thaci was to meet on Saturday at the White House with his Serbian counterpart, President Aleksandar Vucic, to continue a Kosovar-Serbian dialogue mediated by American officials.

Mr. Thaci, 52, will no longer attend the meeting, dashing American hopes that the negotiations might finally lead to a settlement between Serbia and Kosovo. Kosovo won autonomy in 1999, aided by a NATO bombing campaign, but Serbia has never recognized Kosovo’s sovereignty, and negotiations to reach a final peace deal stalled in 2018. The United States is one of about 100 countries that recognize Kosovo’s independence.

“This affects Kosovo in all possible ways,” said Agron Bajrami, the head of the Koha Media Group, Kosovo’s largest media conglomerate. “It affects the process of dialogue, in which the president was the main interlocutor for both the European Union and the United States, and it will have an enormous effect in the political scene in Kosovo.”

Though most of the more than 13,000 casualties in the Kosovo War were Kosovar Albanians killed by Serbian troops, more than 2,000 were Serbs, Roma and Kosovar Albanians killed mostly by NATO bombs or by guerrilla groups like the Kosovo Liberation Army, according to figures from the Humanitarian Law Center, a human rights group with offices in both Serbia and Kosovo.

To investigate possible war crimes carried out by these guerrilla groups, the Kosovar Parliament founded a special judicial system in 2015, staffed by foreign jurists and based in the Netherlands to allow its officials to work more independently.

Though investigators previously had summoned a sitting Kosovar prime minister to give evidence in The Hague, Mr. Thaci and his co-defendants were among the first to be indicted by the prosecutors.

The prosecutors accused Mr. Thaci, Kadri Veseli, a former spy chief, and several unnamed defendants of crimes against humanity, including murder, enforced disappearance of persons, persecution and torture.

“If the indictment is confirmed, it would be unprecedented,” said Vigan Qorrolli, a law professor at the University of Pristina in Kosovo’s capital. “Some people thought they’d go for the smaller fishes, but they started with the bigger fishes.”

Mr. Thaci began his public life as a leader of the Kosovo Liberation Army, but turned to civilian politics after the war ended, serving as both prime minister and foreign minister. Since 2016, he has been Kosovo’s mainly ceremonial president.

Mr. Thaci remains one of the pillars of Kosovar political life, revered as a hero of the war by some while others accuse him of being the embodiment of the wayward political class that has ruled Kosovo since its independence from Serbia.

A 2008 report compiled by German intelligence officers accused him of rampant corruption. “People identify him with everything that went wrong after independence,” Mr. Bajrami said.

Still, Joseph R. Biden Jr., the presumptive Democratic nominee for president, once described Mr. Thaci as the “George Washington of Kosovo.”

Earlier his year, Mr. Thaci helped engineer the collapse of the government of Albin Kurti, a reformist prime minister and longtime political activist who had promised to clean up Kosovo’s judicial system, and whom many younger Kosovars viewed as a necessary break from former wartime leaders like Mr. Thaci.

Criticism of Mr. Thaci escalated after his support for a land swap with Serbia, including discussing it in a 2018 interview with The New York Times. Mr. Thaci said he hoped the move would help persuade Serbia to recognize Kosovo’s independence. Mr. Thaci now denies he discussed such a land swap with Serbian officials, but the claim remains central to Kosovar political discourse.

Prosecutors at the special court said they had been forced into announcing their indictment on Wednesday because of actions taken by Mr. Thaci and Mr. Veseli to undermine their work, accusing him of “a secret campaign to overturn the law creating the Court.”

A spokesman for the prosecutors declined to elaborate. A spokesman for Mr. Thaci also declined to comment.

Patrick Kingsley reported from Berlin, and Gerry Mullany from New York. Marlise Simons contributed reporting from Paris.

This will get brushed under the Kosovarpet

[Soldier of Macedon]

This will get brushed under the Kosovarpet

Many things are swept under the carpet where it concerns Kosovo, like the KLA being considered a terrorist group prior to their collaboration with the Clinton administration, like the moronic statements made by U.S. politicians such as the one from the presumptive Democratic nominee cited in the above article and like the activities of the circling vultures in the following article:

https://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/12/world/europe/americans-who-helped-free-kosovo-return-as-entrepreneurs.html

Dec. 11, 2012

PRISTINA, Kosovo — Prime Minister Hashim Thaci is in a bind. His country’s largest and most lucrative enterprise, the state telecommunications company, is up for sale. The jostling among buyers is intense. Narrowing the bidders has hardly helped. One bid is from a fund founded by former Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright. Lobbying for another was James W. Pardew, the Clinton-era special envoy to the Balkans. Both former diplomats are among the Americans who hold the status of heroes here for their roles in the 1999 intervention that separated Kosovo from Serbia and created one of the world’s newest states. In a meeting with Mr. Pardew in October, the prime minister explained his “difficult position” in having to choose between the buyers, according to a memo leaked to the newspaper Zeri, “because whichever of the two bidders behind them wins, he will be seen by 2 million people to have betrayed the other one.” So many former American officials have returned to Kosovo for business — in coal and telecommunications, or for lobbying and other lucrative government contracts — that it is hard to keep them from colliding. They also include Wesley K. Clark, a retired Army general and the former supreme allied commander of NATO forces in Europe who ran the bombing campaign against the Serbian strongman Slobodan Milosevic; and Mark Tavlarides, who was legislative director at the Clinton White House’s National Security Council. The State Department has no policy that forbids former diplomats to lobby on behalf of nations where they served or returning to them for profit, beyond the one applying to federal employees as a whole, which prohibits senior officials from contacting agencies where they once worked for one year and bans all federal employees for life from advising on the same matters.

Kosovo is not the only nation where former officials have returned to conduct business — Iraq is another example — but it presents an extreme case, and perhaps a special ethical quandary, given the outsize American influence here. Pristina, the capital, may be the only city in the world where Bob Dole Street intersects Bill Clinton Boulevard. Foreign policy experts say the practice of former officials’ returning for business is more common than acknowledged publicly. Privately, former officials concede the possibility of conflicts of interest and even the potential to influence American foreign policy as diplomats who traditionally made careers in public service now rotate more frequently to lucrative jobs in the private sector. Asked for comment, former officials involved said their business dealings with the Kosovo government would benefit Kosovars by building a more prosperous economy. “We’re going to employ people, provide training, create exports and help the country grow and develop as a democracy,” said General Clark, who is chairman of Envidity, a Canadian energy company seeking to explore Kosovo’s lignite coal deposits and produce synthetic fuel. Lawrence Lessig, a law professor and director of the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics at Harvard, said the appearance of “cashing in” risked undermining the prestige of the United States by clouding the humanitarian nature of the 1999 intervention, which was aimed at ending Serbian atrocities against Kosovars. After the separation, Kosovo was an international protectorate run by thousands of officials from other countries and the United Nations serving as government representatives and private contractors. Four years of internationally “supervised independence” ended in September. About 6,000 peacekeepers remain. The closeness of the ties between the state-builders and the state they built has made it easy for officials to change hats. Though the country is one of Europe’s poorest, there is still the potential for profit, particularly as the government privatizes critical assets.

Albright Capital Management, founded by Ms. Albright, has been shortlisted in the bidding for a 75 percent share in the state telecommunications company, PTK. The company’s sale is expected to bring in between $400 million and $800 million. Senior executives of a sister company, Albright Stonebridge Group, are already small shareholders in PTK’s only competitor, the private company IPKO, raising concerns on the threat to market competition if Ms. Albright’s consortium wins the bid. Mr. Pardew, the former American envoy, lobbied top Kosovo officials on behalf of a competing consortium, Twelve Hornbeams S.a.r.l /Avicenna Capital LLC. The memo on the prime minister’s meeting with Mr. Pardew, from within the consortium, was leaked by someone unhappy with the running of the tender process. The choice of Mr. Pardew as their emissary was “vitally important,” the memo noted, because Kosovo’s elite “know and love him for his role on the ground during the war.” After the memo became public, Mr. Pardew withdrew from lobbying for the consortium, and he declined to comment. It is still possible that neither of the American-backed bidders will win the tender, which is expected to be decided in January. Ms. Albright responded to an interview request with a statement. Citing limits to disclosure during the tender process, the statement from Nelson Oliveira, managing director and general counsel of Albright Capital Management, read in part, “We take seriously all of our obligations — legal and ethical, in this and all other potential investments.” “We believe that a transparent, well managed privatization of the state-owned telecom company should bring substantial benefits to the economy and people of Kosovo,” the statement added.

Kosovo’s government denied that any of the former diplomats got special treatment. “I hope they will make money in Kosovo and that Kosovo will make money from their investments,” said Deputy Foreign Minister Petrit Selimi. “The Kosovo government will not choose a company just because it’s American.” Telecommunications in Kosovo can be a rough business. In 2007, gunmen tried — first with firearms, then with a mortar attack on his car — to kill Anton Berisha, the head of the telecommunications regulatory agency. He survived both attempts, which took place not long after he awarded Kosovo’s second cellphone license to the Slovenian-owned IPKO. A year later, he became ambassador to Slovenia. In 2004, Ms. Albright became a special adviser to the chairman of the board of IPKO, Akan Ismaili, who is now Kosovo’s ambassador to the United States. The telecommunications deal is just one of many that Americans have angled for. The biggest infrastructure project in Kosovo’s post-Yugoslav history, a 63-mile stretch of highway connecting Pristina to the Albanian border, was awarded in 2010 to Bechtel of San Francisco in a joint venture with a Turkish company, Enka. At the time, the prime minister estimated the deal at $1 billion.

Bechtel had help getting the contract from Mr. Tavlarides, the legislative director at the National Security Council during the 1999 Kosovo intervention. According to a lobbying report filed with the United States government, Mr. Tavlarides lobbied on behalf of Bechtel in Kosovo on “highway-related issues” while working for Van Scoyoc Associates, a Washington-based lobbying firm. Mr. Tavlarides now works at the Podesta Group, which signed a $50,000 monthly contract with the Kosovo government on Jan. 1, advising it on communications and strengthening Kosovo’s ties to the United States government. The Podesta Group was co-founded as Podesta Associates by John Podesta, White House chief of staff in Mr. Clinton’s second term. Mr. Podesta left the firm in 1993. It is still owned by his brother, Anthony. Mr. Tavlarides declined to comment, citing his firm’s policy to not speak with the news media about clients.

For his part, General Clark said it was “insulting” to suggest that there could be any conflict between private profit-making and his past responsibilities. “My business is aboveboard, transparent and helps the Kosovar people,” he said. “We are going to use a resource that had no value to the Kosovo people and bring in hundreds of millions of dollars of investment.” United States military officers have a one-year post-retirement ban on contacting their former armed service about official matters, and a lifetime ban on any contacts related to the same matters on which they worked, according to the Pentagon. Watchdog groups raise the possibility that Kosovo’s government might see doing business with former American officials as a conduit to the current United States administration. They also fear that the influence of former officials diminishes competition and hurts consumers. The appearance of an inside track by some companies had discouraged competitors “because they know the game is set,” said Avni Zogiani, a Kosovar journalist who heads Cohu, an anticorruption organization in Pristina that has investigated the links between the telecommunications business, crime and politics. “There is no interest in investing in Kosovo by reputable companies anymore.”

Even some former officials acknowledge discomfort at the extent of the interplay between dealing and diplomacy. Steven P. Schook, a retired United States army brigadier general and former chief of staff of KFOR, NATO’s force in Kosovo, said he had “mixed feelings” about it. Mr. Schook, who also served as the deputy head of the United Nations mission in Kosovo, has returned as a private consultant for former Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj, who was acquitted last month by the war crimes tribunal in The Hague. He says that he works for Mr. Haradinaj because of a belief in his leadership and that his only compensation is his expenses living in Kosovo, about $2,600 a month. “There are a lot of ex-diplomats coming in and out that are now representing private interests,” he said. “If I’m a large corporation and I want to get in to be competitive, I want to work with people to help me do that.” “But on the other hand, it seems a bit tawdry,” Mr. Schook added. “One minute you’re liberating a place, and the next minute you’re trying to get an energy tender.”

[Risto the Great]

“But on the other hand, it seems a bit tawdry,” Mr. Schook added. “One minute you’re liberating a place, and the next minute you’re trying to get an energy tender.”

The last sentence above describes the entirety of the Kosovo war (and partially Macedonia's misery) in my opinion.

[Carlin]

What are the chances of Thaci and Kadri Veseli actually getting convicted?


Update

Member of the KLA General Staff delivered to The Hague: "Dad was invited by EULEX..."

"As Kosovo online reports, Zogjani's son Liridon pointed out in a post on his Facebook account that EULEX called his father this morning and from there sent him to The Hague without prior announcement or informing him and his family.

According to him, the Special Prosecutor's Office called his father because of the events during the war.

Zogjani's deportation to The Hague comes a day after the Office of the Special Prosecutor of the Special Court confirmed that it had indicted Kosovo President Hashim Thaci and Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK) leader Kadri Veseli, as well as other KLA officials."

URL:

https://www.b92.net/eng/news/politics.php?yyyy=2020&mm=06&dd=25&nav_id=108792

Kosovan president’s war crimes indictment puts West in a bind

"International powers have continued to cooperate closely with Thaçi even as accusations of serious criminality swirled around him. A 2010 report by Swiss politician and prosecutor Dick Marty for the Council of Europe alleged Thaçi was the head of an organized crime gang known as the Drenica Group (named after a region of Kosovo). Thaçi repeatedly denied the accusation.

The report also contained allegations that a number of Serbs had been murdered for their kidneys, which were sold on the black market.

The fact that Marty's report said it drew on information from various Western intelligence agencies raised questions over how much Western powers had turned a blind eye to Thaçi's activities."

URL:

https://www.politico.eu/article/kosovan-presidents-war-crimes-indictment-puts-west-in-a-tight-spot/

[Carlin]

Albanian Premier Condemns Thaci and Veseli War Crime Indictments

URL:

https://balkaninsight.com/2020/06/25/albania-premier-edi-rama-slams-thaci-and-veseli-indictments-for-war-crimes/

Prime Minister Edi Rama told the Albanian parliament on Thursday that the charges against Hashim Thaci and Kadri Veseli did not just concern individuals but formed part of a wider attack on Kosovo and Albanians in general.

Edi Rama, Prime Minister of Albania, on Thursday condemned the Specialist Prosecutor’s Office announcement that it was charging Kosovo’s President Hashim Thaci, Kosovo politician Kadri Veseli and other former guerrilla fighters with war crimes, calling the decision “an attack [that goes] well beyond singular names”.

He added “It was a statement that does not only throw mud against Thaci or Veseli or the Kosovo Liberation Army but [attacks] Kosovo and Albanianism.”

Rama accused the international community of failing to react to the lack of punishments for war crimes on Serbia’s side and suggested Kosovo was being persecuted as if it was the aggressor and not the victim in the conflict of the late-1990s.

“That text [the indictment] feels like you are reading about a nation of aggressors and not the victims of aggression,” he said, suggesting that the indictment raised a wider question mark over the war for the independence from Kosovo.

The Hague-based Specialist Prosecutor’s Office, SPO, on Wednesday said it had filed a ten-count indictment with the Kosovo Specialist Chambers, KSC, charging President Thaci, Veseli, and others with a range of crimes against humanity and war crimes, including murder, enforced disappearance of persons, persecution, and torture.

The indictment alleges that they are responsible for nearly 100 murders. The indictment mentions crimes involving hundreds of known victims of Kosovo Albanian, Serb, Roma, and other ethnicities, and include political opponents of the KLA.

According to the press release, the prosecutors believe Thaci and Veseli carried out a secret campaign to overturn the law creating the Hague-based Court and otherwise obstruct its work in an attempt to ensure that they do not face justice.

[Risto the Great]

He added “It was a statement that does not only throw mud against Thaci or Veseli or the Kosovo Liberation Army but [attacks] Kosovo and Albanianism.”

Yes. That is right.

[Soldier of Macedon]

https://www.arabnews.com/node/1730941/middle-east

BRUSSELS: The European Union warned Serbia and Kosovo on Monday that they could undermine their EU membership hopes by moving their Israeli embassies to Jerusalem, as US President Donald Trump’s surprise announcement about the change left officials in Belgrade and Pristina scrambling to limit the political fallout. In an unexpected move last week, Trump said that Serbia and Kosovo had agreed to normalize economic ties as part of US-brokered talks that include Belgrade moving its embassy to Jerusalem, and mutual recognition between Israel and Kosovo.

It surprised the Europeans, who are leading complex talks between Serbia and its former territory of Kosovo on improving their long-strained relations, while Serbian officials appeared to be watering down their commitment to Trump, and Kosovo sought to allay concerns among Muslim countries. The EU voiced “serious concern and regret” over both countries’ commitment to move their embassies to Jerusalem, saying the bloc is still committed to the “two state solution” in which Jerusalem will be the capital of both Israel and a future Palestinian state, and its own diplomatic mission is in Tel Aviv. The 27-nation EU’s long-held policy is that Jerusalem’s status should be worked out between Israel and the Palestinians as part of broader peace negotiations, and that Serbia — as a candidate to join the bloc — should respect that. “There is no EU member state with an embassy in Jerusalem,” European Commission spokesman Peter Stano said. “Any diplomatic steps that could call into question the EU’s common position on Jerusalem are a matter of serious concern and regret.” The bloc expects prospective members like Serbia to align with its foreign policy positions. “In this context any diplomatic steps that could call into question the EU’s common position on Jerusalem are a matter of serious concern and regret,” EU foreign affairs spokesman Peter Stano told reporters in Brussels.

Praising what he said was “a major breakthrough” and “a truly historic commitment,” Trump — deep into campaigning ahead of November’s presidential election — announced Friday that “Serbia and Kosovo have each committed to economic normalization.” Trump also said that Serbia has committed to open a commercial office in Jerusalem this month and move its embassy there in July. The Trump administration recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital in late 2017, breaking with longstanding diplomatic practice, and moved the US embassy there in May 2018. Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu thanked Serbia’s president and confirmed that Israel and Kosovo, a predominantly Muslim country, will establish diplomatic relations. He said Pristina also will open its embassy in Jerusalem. Stano, speaking as Serbian President Aleksander Vucic and Kosovo Prime Minster Avdullah Hoti held a new round of talks in Brussels on normalizing their relations, said the EU was told in advance only about the economic aspects of the White House event, not about movements in Jerusalem.

In Belgrade, Serbian officials appeared to be stepping back from the embassy pledge, with Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic saying the final decision will still have to be discussed by the government and will depend on “a number of factors” including future development of ties with Israel. Asked about the move following the meeting in Brussels, Vucic said that “Serbia has not opened that chapter yet, but we are doing our best to align with EU declarations, EU resolutions as much as it is possible. But he underlined that Serbia ”will take care of our own interests for the benefit and for the sake of our people.” Kosovo’s President Hashim Thaci, meanwhile, was on the phone with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, trying to assuage fears about the decision to recognize Israel expressed by Turkey and the Arab League group of countries. “Such a recognition will not violate under any circumstances the strategic, friendly and fraternal partnership with Turkey,” Thaci said after the conversation.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu welcomed the deal that establishes diplomatic relations with Kosovo, and would have both Kosovo and Serbia open embassies in Jerusalem. They would join the US and Guatemala as the only countries with embassies in the contested city, whose eastern sector is claimed by the Palestinians as the capital of a future state. “We will continue efforts so that additional European countries will transfer their embassies to Jerusalem,” Netanyahu said Friday. He noted that Kosovo becomes the first Muslim-majority country to open an embassy in Jerusalem. On Monday, Sharren Haskel, a lawmaker in Netanyahu’s Likud party and chairwoman of the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs subcommittee, said that the “EU efforts to educate Serbia and Kosovo are shocking.” She called on “other countries to strengthen Kosovo and Serbia, to join and move their missions to Jerusalem, the eternal capital of the Jewish people.”

Kosovo unilaterally declared independence from Serbia in 2008, around a decade after Belgrade sent troops into its former territory to crush an uprising by ethnic Albanian separatists. Serbia refuses to recognize Kosovo’s statehood, and tensions have simmered ever since. The EU-facilitated negotiations, which the Europeans say is the only way to address their membership hopes, started in March 2011 and have produced more than a dozen agreements, but most of them have not been observed. The talks stalled in November 2018 and only resumed in July after a parallel US negotiating effort began. But as they met again on Monday, Vucic and Hoti recommitted to the European track, saying “that they attach the highest priority to EU integration and to continuing the work on the EU-facilitated Belgrade-Pristina Dialogue.” In what was described as a “joint statement” issued by the office of EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, Vucic and Hoti also said they “committed to redoubling their efforts to ensure further EU alignment in accordance with their respective obligations.” They appeared to play down Friday’s announcement, by saying that “the recently agreed documents in Washington, D.C., building on previous Dialogue-related commitments undertaken by the two parties, could provide a useful contribution to reaching a comprehensive, legally binding agreement on normalization of relations.”

In one of Europe’s most intractable disputes, Serbia has refused to recognize Kosovo’s declaration of independence since the province broke away in a 1998-99 war that was ended only by a NATO bombing campaign against Serb troops. Both Kosovo and Serbia are facing mounting pressure from the West to resolve the impasse, seen as crucial to either side joining the EU. More than 13,000 people died in the war, mostly Kosovo Albanians, who form a majority in the former province. One key question is diplomatic recognition for Kosovo — five of the EU’s 27 countries do not acknowledge its independence. The EU’s special representative for the dialogue, Miroslav Lajcak, hailed “full progress” in Monday’s talks on economic cooperation and the issue of people left missing or displaced by the conflict. “Our negotiations today were intense as usual and not always easy, but what prevailed was the will of both sides to advance the discussions despite the painful and complex issues at hand,” Lajcak said. Hoti also said advances had been made in Monday’s talks. “I am pleased to say that progress has been made in drafting the final agreement between the two countries for the full normalization of relations,” he told reporters.

Talks will continue next week at expert level, Lajcak said, with the two leaders due to meet again later in September. The two sides have been in EU-led talks for a decade but little progress has been made. A raft of agreements in 2013 have yet to be fully implemented and a previous round of negotiations broke down in 2018 after a series of diplomatic tit-for-tats. Vucic and Hoti resumed face-to-face talks in Brussels in July but the effort got off to a frosty start, with the Serbian leader accusing Pristina of trying to blackmail Belgrade. Monday’s talks also broached the question of the ethnic Serb minority in Kosovo and their future status in the country — one of the thorniest disputes between the two sides. Washington touted the agreements signed by Vucic and Hoti at the White House on Friday as a major breakthrough, but on Monday the two leaders issued a more cautious joint statement before they met.

[Soldier of Macedon]

Vucic keeps talking about not recognising Kosovo yet all of these agreements lead closer to that objective. He's even managed to upset his Russian patrons.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-r...-idUSKBN25X0RU

MOSCOW/BELGRADE (Reuters) - Serbia’s president accused Moscow on Sunday of stooping to “primitivism and vulgarity” in an attack on him, after Russia’s foreign ministry spokeswoman compared him to the actor Sharon Stone in an explicit film scene. Serbia is Moscow’s closest ally in the Balkans, but President Aleksandar Vucic has long annoyed Russia by seeking better ties with the West. He took a step in that direction last week by signing an agreement to improve relations with Kosovo, a province that declared independence in 2008, which Belgrade and Moscow do not recognise. A signing ceremony was held at the White House. Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova posted a picture on Facebook of Vucic at the ceremony, alongside a picture of Stone from the 1992 film “Basic Instinct”, at a police interrogation where her character briefly exposes herself. “If you are invited to the White House but your chair stands like you are in an interrogation, you should sit like in the picture number 2. Whoever you are. Just trust me,” Zakharova wrote. In televised comments while on a visit to Brussels, Vucic said: “Maria Zakharova speaks mostly about herself, and the primitivism and vulgarity she showed speaks of her, and by God, of those who placed her there.” Serbia’s defence minister, Aleksandar Vulin said in a statement: “Today, the enemies of Serbia and Russia are delighted with Zakharova’s petty malice.” Zakharova updated her post on Sunday with an apology, saying that her comments had been misunderstood. Vucic spoke by phone with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Belgrade and Moscow said on Sunday afternoon.

Meanwhile, Serbia's "brother" Greece recently played against Kosovo in the Nations League and had no issue acknowledging their opponents. And this:

https://balkaninsight.com/2020/09/04...-is-political/

An economic consultant in Kosovo, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told BIRN that recognition was not a prerequisite for good economic relations given that Greece and Kosovo cooperate economically despite the fact the former is one of five EU states that have not recognised Kosovo statehood. “Greece does not impose non-tariff barriers on Kosovar exporters: it recognizes documents with Kosovo symbols and vehicle license plates. Greece has also agreed to open the Kosovo Office for Economic and Trade Affairs in Athens,” the consultant said.

So much for holding the line.

[Amphipolis]

No, Greece is not going to recognize Kosovo as long as it is an illegal state. This is not only related to pro-Serbianism but to the issue of Cyprus, where no country (except for Turkey) has recognized the territories occupied by Turkey yet.

[Soldier of Macedon]

No, Greece is not going to recognize Kosovo as long as it is an illegal state. This is not only related to pro-Serbianism but to the issue of Cyprus, where no country (except for Turkey) has recognized the territories occupied by Turkey yet.

The Cypriot example isn't exactly analogous, unless of course Greece is planning to create a "Northern Cyprus Office for Economic and Trade Affairs in Athens" or send its national team to North Nicosia for a football match. Greece's stance on Kosovo is a facade betrayed by a de facto situation which indicates otherwise. You may whine but ultimately you will dance to the tune of your German masters, even if your supposed interests don't align.

[Carlin]

Following his arrest by the Specialist Prosecutor’s Office on 25 September 2020, Hysni Gucati was transferred to the Detention Facilities of the Kosovo Specialist Chambers in The Hague. An arrest warrant was issued for the suspect for offences against the administration of justice, namely intimidation of witnesses, retaliation and violation of secrecy of proceedings, according to the Kosovo Criminal Code, by virtue of Article 15(2) of the Law on Specialist Chambers and Specialist Prosecutor’s Office, Law No. 05/L 053.

https://www.scp-ks.org/en/arrest-and-transfer-hysni-gucati

[Carlin]

https://www.slobodenpecat.mk/hoti-za-apseneto-na-haradinaj-i-guczati-pravdata-e-nad-s%D1%90/

Полицијата на Меѓународната мисија за владеење на правото во Косово ЕУЛЕКС вчера го уапси и потпретседателот на Организацијата на воени ветерани на Ослободителната војска на Косово (ОВВ-ОВК), Насим Харадинај, откако претходно беше приведен и претседателот на организацијата Хисни Гуцати.

Адвокатот на организацијата на ветерани на поранешна ОВК, Том Гаши изјави дека претседателот на таа организација Хисни Гуцати и неговиот заменик Насим Харадинај моментално се во Хаг.

[Carlin]

Kosovo police fired tear gas during clashes with ethnic Serbs during raids. At least 11 people have been injured. Serbia's president says the country will protect Kosovo's Serbs if Western powers fail to do so.

[Liberator of Makedonija]

Last I read, Serb troops were stationed at the border and that the EU was meant to be mediating?