Albanian Language Media:

• PM Kurti meets Quint ambassadors and EU Head of Mission (media)
• Interior Ministry publishes FAQs for registration of vehicles with RKS plates (media)
• Whose trucks were used for the barricades in the north of Kosovo? (Radio Free Europe)
• Two deaths and 952 new cases with COVID-19 in last 24 hours (media)
• Montenegrin Minister: Abazovic-led government will be ousted on August 19 (Nacionale)

Serbian Language Media:

• Petkovic: Kurti demonstrating he wants war, not agreement (Tanjug)
• Petkovic meets family of Nikola Nedeljkovic arrested on June 28, at Gazimestan (Kosovo Online)
• Two shops in Velika Hoca burglarized (Kosovo Online)

International:

• Who Is Daria Aslamova, The Russian Journalist Expelled From Kosovo? (RFE)
• A Range of Digital Rights Violations Disrupts the Region (BIRN)  

Albanian Language Media  

PM Kurti meets Quint ambassadors and EU Head of Mission (media)

Prime Minister of Kosovo, Albin Kurti, hosted a meeting today with the EU Head of Mission in Kosovo, Tomas Szunyog, and the ambassadors of the Quint countries. A press release issued by the Office of the Prime Minister notes that Kurti talked about the agreement for the implementation of the energy roadmap which enables the payment of electricity by customers in the north of Kosovo, and the implementation of the agreement with ENTSO-E and the importance it has for Kosovo’s sovereignty. The meeting also focused on political developments and the security situation in Kosovo and the region. 

“Talking about the dialogue between the Republic of Kosovo and Serbia, the engagement of the Government of Republic of Kosovo was reiterated for a principled and balanced dialogue for a legally-binding agreement for full normalisation of relations, centered on mutual recognition,” the press release notes.

At the centre of the meeting was also the continued close cooperation and coordination of actions between the government of Kosovo and representatives of the EU and Quint countries.

Interior Ministry publishes FAQs for registration of vehicles with RKS plates (media)

Kosovo’s Ministry of Interior Affairs published today a list of frequently asked questions and answers about the registration of vehicles with RKS license plates of vehicles that have license plates “PR”, “KM”, “PZ”, “GL”, “UR”, “PE”, “DA” or “ĐA”. “We call on all citizens to use this opportunity from the date of the start of registration on September 1, 2022 until October 31, 2022,” the statement notes. 

Whose trucks were used for the barricades in the north of Kosovo? (Radio Free Europe)

Research by the Radio Free Europe reveals that among the heavy machinery which Serbs in the north of Kosovo used to build barricades and blocked almost all roads leading the border crossing points with Serbia – Jarinje and Bernjak – there were also vehicles that are almost identical with those used by the Serb municipal services in the northern municipalities. These services, such as the Public Enterprise “Standard” from Mitrovica North are under the control of the Serbian List, the leading party of Serbs in Kosovo which is close to the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) led by Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic.

On July 31 and August 1, Radio Free Europe cameras recorded workers of the Standard company at the barricades wearing their work uniforms. The director of the company is Goran Rakic, who leads the Serbian List and serves as Minister for Communities and Returns in the Government of Kosovo led by Prime Minister Albin Kurti.

RFE tried to contact Rakic but he did not reply. The news website also contacted Aleksandar Trajkovic, whom the local media present as the head of the Standard company. Asked what the workers and trucks of the company were doing at the barricades, Trajkovic said: “You should ask the director of the company. I really cannot answer your question”.

The news website also tried to contact Aleksandar Spiric, mayor of the Serb parallel municipality of Mitrovica North, about the presence of trucks and municipal services at the barricades, but he did not reply.

In addition to vehicles that are tied with local municipal services, the roads in the north of Kosovo were also blocked by trucks belonging to several private companies from Serbia.

Two deaths and 952 new cases with COVID-19 in last 24 hours (media)

Two deaths from COVID-19 and 952 new cases with the virus were confirmed in the last 24 hours in Kosovo, the Ministry of Health said in a statement. There are 7,837 active cases with COVID-19 in Kosovo.

Montenegrin Minister: Abazovic-led government will be ousted on August 19 (Nacionale)

Montenegro’s Minister for Agriculture and Water Management and leader of the Socialist Popular Party, Vladimir Jokovic, said he has reliable information that the Abazovic-led government will be ousted on August 19. He told the Radio Television of Montenegro: ‘my information is very reliable. DPS and the Democrats have agreed on everything and now it is in their hands. We have reached our political objective in government, and we are waiting for the voting results on August 19”.

Montenegro has entered a new political crisis after the agreement that regulates the relations of the state and the Serbian Orthodox Church. The party of Montenegrin President Milo Djukanovic argues that the agreement damages Montenegro’s national interests and that this is why they will no longer support the Abazovic-led government.

Serbian Language Media 

Petkovic: Kurti demonstrating he wants war, not agreement (Tanjug)

The head of the Serbian government Office for Kosovo and Metohija, Petar Petkovic, said on Monday the most recent statement by the PM of Pristina institutions, Albin Kurti, demonstrated that Kurti openly wanted war, rather than dialogue and an agreement, Tanjug news agency reports.

“If Kurti is publicly confirming that a Community of Serb Municipalities will never be formed and that the Serbs have to accept unilateral and violent decisions on (vehicle) licence plates and ID cards, it is clear to everyone that Kurti is calling for conflicts in Kosovo and Metohija”, Petkovic said in an official statement.

Whenever he makes a statement, Kurti makes up things about purported Russian influence because, that way, he not only wants to attack Belgrade, but also to justify future new unilateral and violent actions against Serbs in Kosovo, Petkovic said.

“Led by President Aleksandar Vucic, Belgrade will continue to maintain peace and stability in the territory of Kosovo and Metohija and the Western Balkans in general through a responsible and wise policy, and seek solutions to all crises in dialogue and through discussions”, Petkovic said.

He also said Pristina’s attempts to impose an agenda for the Brussels dialogue through wishful thinking about a “mutual recognition” were nothing but a tactic aimed at making dialogue pointless and ruining it before it even began.

Speaking to the Italian daily La Repubblica, Kurti has said there was a great risk of renewed conflict with Serbia, reiterating his claim that Russia had a great influence on Belgrade.

He said the Brussels discussions would address the general aspects of Belgrade-Pristina relations and that his government’s decision on licence plates and personal documents would remain in effect.

Petkovic meets family of Nikola Nedeljkovic arrested on June 28, at Gazimestan (Kosovo Online)

Office for Kosovo and Metohija Director, Petar Petkovic met with the family of Nikola Nedeljkovic, 20-year old Serb who was arrested by Kosovo police on June 28, at Gazimestan, Radio KIM reports. Nedeljkovic is in detention for a month and a half, pending trial. 

Recalling that Nedeljkovic is for longer than a month and a half in detention, Petkovic said the Office provided him a lawyer and necessary support, expressing hope that he will soon unite with his family. 

Two shops in Velika Hoca burglarized (Kosovo Online)

The Office for Kosovo and Metohija said that two shops in the village of Velika Hoca were burglarized, money and commodities stolen, Kosovo Online portal reports.

The Office recalled that those shops were also targets of burglaries at the end of June, adding Kosovo police didn’t find perpetrators yet.

The office urged responsible bodies to bring perpetrators to justice, given that there are video recordings from surveillance cameras of the burglary.  

International 

Who Is Daria Aslamova, The Russian Journalist Expelled From Kosovo? (RFE)

Daria Aslamova and her employer, the pro-Kremlin tabloid Komsomolskaya Pravda, claim the 52-year-old reporter was hoping to travel to Kosovo to chronicle recent unrest in the region.

Officials in Kosovo weren’t convinced and detained Aslamova on the border. She was later released and, as of August 6, Aslamova was believed to be in the Serbian town of Raska, not far from an official border crossing point between Serbia and Kosovo.

Kosovar Interior Minister Xhelal Svecla said on August 6 that Aslamova was suspected of being a spy and that security authorities were searching “for her intentions.”

“Many countries have proven that she was engaged in espionage for Russian military intelligence and that she pretended to be a journalist,” Svecla said in press statement, without specifying which countries. A day later, Svecla said in a Facebook post that Aslamova had been declared an “undesirable person in the Republic of Kosovo,” which translates into a five-year ban on entering the country.

Speaking to RFE/RL’s Balkan Service, Kosovo’s Prime Minister Albin Kurti said that Aslamova’s intentions “were not good.” He added that it was “not strange that she comes from Serbia, since Russia wants to use Serbia as a platform to destabilize the Balkans and in particular [to] attack Kosovo.”

Read more at: https://bit.ly/3zL0Pna

A Range of Digital Rights Violations Disrupts the Region (BIRN)

From warmongering and spread of hate speech ahead of upcoming elections to misogynistic insults, cyberattacks and coordinated troll networks, the second half of July saw a range of digital rights violations in the Balkans.

Struggling to collect points and voters ahead of upcoming general elections, politicians and political parties in Bosnia and Herzegovina perpetrated numerous digital rights violations.

In North Macedonia and Hungary, BIRN monitoring recorded a spread of fake news by media as well as by organised troll networks, while various forms of cyberattacks targeted state institutions and the media in Romania, Hungary and Bosnia.

Warmongering and hate speech as campaign tools in Bosnia

On July 26, at a gathering organized by the main Bosniak party, the Party of Democratic Action, SDA, the party leader, Bakir Izetbegović gave an inflammatory speech which drew condemnation from social media users and politicians.

In his speech, the SDA leader recalled Bosnia’s military strength in the event of a “worst-case scenario”, saying: “We’ve counted ourselves and how many hunters we have, and how many young people, and how many instructors we have on drones, and so on. I won’t go further, but just so you know,” Izetbegović said. The video of the speech was posted on the official page of the SDA and widely shared.

Read more at: https://bit.ly/3JNlU55