Russia sees Serbia as an important ally.
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Europe should not ignore the importance of Serbia as a Russian ally.
Bumble Dee/Shutterstock
Kosovo is under pressure from the US and EU to give in to some of Serbia’s demands.
A woman with flowers walks past a building fortified with sandbags in the Podil neighborhood of Kyiv, Ukraine.
AP Photo/Jae C. Hong
The fragility of peace settlements in the Balkans provides a cautionary tale. US and EU policymakers may inadvertently make matters worse by acceding to the aggressor’s territorial ambitions.
Nato peacekeepers patrol after one police officer was killed and another wounded in an attack.
AP/Alamy
A key meeting is being held in the Balkans as the EU and US seek to resolve regional tension, partly stoked by pro-Russian forces.
A Kosovo police officer guards a road near the village of Banjska in northern Kosovo in September 2023 following an attack on police officers by Serbian militants.
(AP Photo/Bojan Slavkovic)
The U.S. and the EU have neglected the Balkans, hoping that the allure of EU integration would be enough to placate Serbia and other countries. It was not.
EPA/Julien Warnand
Commission president Ursula von der Leyen’s 2023 state of the union speech saw her press for expansion for the union’s own good.
Freedom fighter or something darker? The former president of Kosovo, Hashim Thaçi.
EPA-EFE/Koen van Weel
The trial of the former Kosovan president and several others highlights the sharp and enduring divisions and differing interpretations of history.
National fervour: ethnic Serbs protest in Northern Mitrovica in Kosovo.
EPA-EFE/Djordje Savic
Leaders on both sides are ramping up hostility for their own ends.
Kosovo Force and Kosovo Border Police conduct a joint patrol on the administrative boundary line between Kosovo and Serbia.
U.S. Army photo by Sgt. David I. Marquis, Multinational Battle Group-East/Alamy
Russia’s backing of Serbia during the Ukraine war is aggravating tensions with its neighbour Kosovo.
Some Albanians towns have lost a lot of their younger population.
Andrew Mayovskyy/Shutterstock
Levels of poverty shot up in Albania during COVID when there was little governmental support.
Vladmir Putin is very popular in Serbia.
Sasa Dzambic Photography
European leaders have failed to notice how much support Serbia is providing to Russia, an expert says.
A view of the European Parliament in Strasbourg, eastern France.
Ludovic Marin/AFP
The war in Ukraine has added new momentum to the argument of expanding the EU eastward. However, institutional and political obstacles to making this dream reality abound.
Another big table, but this time Vladimir Putin isn’t sitting at the head.
EPA-EFE/Irinian presidential office handout
A digest of the week’s coverage of the war against Ukraine.
Members of the Levica party march on a government building during a protest in Skopje, North Macedonia, on July 6, 2022. Thousands of people marched for several nights after French President Emmanuel Macron announced a proposal to enable the country’s admission into the EU that many North Macedonians find controversial.
(AP Photo/Boris Grdanoski)
The EU is creating resentment in North Macedonia over its feud with Bulgaria. In the midst of the Russia-Ukraine war, it will only serve to benefit Russia in its efforts to undermine the EU.
In Belgrade, Serbia, residents and visitors queue to be vaccinated against the Covid-19 virus (March 28, 2021).
Oliver Bunic/AFP
While Serbia’s Covid-19 infection rate continues to be worrisome, the country has shown the ability to vaccinate a higher proportion of its population than EU nations.
Celebrating Montenegrin independence on May 21, 2006.
Diminar Dilkoff/AFP via Getty Images
Western leaders learned the hard way 25 years ago that conflict in the Balkans can become ethnic cleansing. Add Russia into the mix, and Montenegro’s new problems are US and European problems, too.
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Named after a village in Bosnia and Herzegovina, NASA’s Martian landing spot is a distant reminder of less peaceful times on Earth.
The government of Kosovo’s Prime Minister Albin Kurti lost a non-confidence vote on March 25.
Valdrin Xhemaj/EPA
The collapse of the government in Kosovo is a victory for reactionary forces within Kosovo and the self-seeking agenda of the Trump administration.
NATO: in search of direction.
Steve Parsons/PA Wire
NATO had its 70th birthday party in London at an awkward moment.
The aftermath of a 6.4 magnitude earthquake in Durres, Albania. November 28 2019.
EPA-EFE/MALTON DIBRA
Post-earthquake aftershocks are often assumed to be less violent, but that’s not always the case.