Albanian Language Media:

• Bislimi: CBK regulation to enter into force on Thursday, facilitated transition (RFE)
• Svecla informs about raid of NGO inside a police station in Pristina (RFE)
• Stoltenberg: NATO most successful alliance (Albanian Post)
• Haradinaj asks Rounds to support Kosovo in Partnership for Peace (media)
• Serwer: Trump’s election would be misfortunate for the Balkans (KTV)
• Grenell: Kurti to stop unilateral moves that risk safety of U.S. troops (media)
• Osmani speaks to Al Thani, discuss excellent Kosovo-Qatar relations (media)

Serbian Language Media:

• No statement from Vucic’s meeting with Quint, EU representatives (Tanjug, media)
• Petkovic: Vucic’s meeting with Quint representatives most difficult ever (Tanjug, RTS)
• Vucic to speak with White House officials, and with Botsan-Kharchenko (Tanjug, Vecernje Novosti, Blic)
• Eparchy of Raska-Prizren: Banning dinar will block normal life in Serbian communities in Kosovo (Tanjug, KiM radio) 
• KP search clinic used by Kosovo Serbs in Pristina (N1, RTS, media)
• Starovic: The remaining Serbs in Pristina are denied basic medical services (Tanjug)
• The Serbian People’s Movement submitted documents for the registration of a new political party (Kontakt plus radio, KiM radio, Caglavica Media Center)

International Media:

• Grenell: Kosovo’s PM Albin Kurti Is Putting American Lives At Risk (thepavlovictoday.com)

Albanian Language Media

Bislimi: CBK regulation to enter into force on Thursday, facilitated transition (RFE)

Kosovo’s Deputy Prime Minister, Besnik Bislimi, said on Wednesday that the Central Bank of Kosovo regulation which determines that the Euro is the only currency that can be used for cash payments in Kosovo, will enter into force on Thursday, as foreseen. He however added that a transition period has been facilitated, without saying how long the transition will last. “The implementation of the regulation does not imply the stopping of transfers from Serbia, and it does not imply eventual financial fines for holding the currency of another country,” he said.

Bislimi said that an information campaign would be launched and that he hopes for talks between the central banks of Kosovo and Serbia to find a mechanism for the transparent transfer of funds.

“At the same time, the Government of the Republic of Kosovo is committed during the eventual transition periods to ensure that the citizens adapt as fast and as easily as possible and without being damaged,” he argued.

Read Bislimi’s full speech at: https://shorturl.at/kotLN

Svecla informs about raid of NGO inside a police station in Pristina (RFE)

Kosovo’s Minister of Interior Affairs, Xhelal Svecla, said in a Facebook post on Wednesday evening, that police raided a non-governmental organization operating in an annex of the central police station in Pristina, over what he called illegal activities and threatening the security of Kosovo. “This kind of activity near the three highest security institutions of Kosovo, the Ministry of Interior Affairs, the Chief Prosecution, and the Kosovo Police, is highly suspicious and constitutes a threat to the security of the country,” he argued.

Svecla said that the department for NGOs in the Ministry of Interior Affairs confirmed that the Serb NGO which was raided is the “Center for Peace and Tolerance Pristina”. He also said that the NGO did not respect the legislation in force for the functioning of NGOs. “Following the raid it was learned that that space was not used for the nature of this NGOs … The Republic of Kosovo is a unitary state with rights and services for all its citizens without any difference. The time when illegality was tolerated in our country has passed,” he added.

Stoltenberg: NATO most successful alliance (Albanian Post)

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said on Wednesday in an address at the Heritage Foundation in the U.S., that NATO is the most successful alliance in history because “we have been able to change when the world changed and for 40 years we halted the Soviet Union and people said that NATO should emerge from the comfort zone and we ended two brutal ethnic wars in the Balkans: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia and Kosovo”.

Haradinaj asks Rounds to support Kosovo in Partnership for Peace (media)

Leader of the Alliance for the Future of Kosovo (AAK) Ramush Haradinaj met during his visit to the U.S. with Congressman Mike Rounds and asked him to support Kosovo in the Partnership for Peace process and membership in NATO. Haradinaj commended Rounds’s role in strengthening relations between Kosovo and the U.S., and his engagement in the Foreign Affairs Committee and the Army Committee. Haradinaj also reiterated Kosovo’s commitment to stand alongside the U.S. as a strategic and irreplaceable partner.

Serwer: Trump’s election would be misfortunate for the Balkans (KTV)

U.S. commentator on the Western Balkans, Daniel Serwer, said in an interview with the TV station on Wednesday that Donald Trump’s eventual election as U.S. President would be misfortunate for the Balkans. “It is clear that in that case hardliners would rule in the U.S., and then not only in the Balkans, but also in Ukraine and the Middle East, they would have one policy of dividing different ethnicities. And this would threaten Bosnia, Kosovo, Ukraine, Israel and Palestine. It would be a formula for all hardliners for divisions. What this brings is war and in this case Ukraine, the Middle East and the Balkans are not separate. They are a continuation of each other,” he argued.

According to Serwer Kosovo’s leadership should improve relations with the Kosovo Serbs, “because this would strengthen the state of Kosovo”. He also said this implies implementing the Constitutional Court’s decision on the lands of the Decani Monastery.

Grenell: Kurti to stop unilateral moves that risk safety of U.S. troops (media)

Former U.S. Presidential Envoy for the Kosovo-Serbia dialogue, Richard Grenell, said in a post on X on Wednesday that “if Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti wants Americans to continue paying for and protecting the security of the region through NATO troops, then he must stop making unilateral moves that risk the safety of the 572 American men and women from Texas, Oklahoma, Iowa, Rhode Island (and soon to be Georgia) currently serving in Kosovo. His erratic behavior ignoring the international community’s demands can no longer be dismissed by the Biden team and the U.S. Senate. He is putting American lives at risk with his actions. He must stop his belligerence – or the American troops should be pulled home for safety concerns.”

Osmani speaks to Al Thani, discuss excellent Kosovo-Qatar relations (media)

Kosovo President Vjosa Osmani said on Wednesday that she spoke with the Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al Thani, “and discussed the excellent Kosovo-Qatar relations, efforts to strengthen Kosovo’s international standing, expanding investment opportunities and the upcoming agreement on mutual visa waiver.”

Serbian Language Media 

No statement from Vucic’s meeting with Quint, EU representatives (Tanjug, media)

The press office of the president of the Republic of Serbia announced on Wednesday evening no statement would be released from President Aleksandar Vucic’s meeting with representatives of Quint states and the EU in Belgrade.

“The Office of the President of the Republic of Serbia informs the public that there will be no statement from the meeting he held with representatives of the Quint and the EU. Any formal word would be superfluous,” it said.

Earlier in the evening, Vucic met with the ambassadors of four Quint states – the UK, France, Italy, and Germany – the head of the EU Delegation to Serbia and a representative of the US embassy in Belgrade.

Petkovic: Vucic’s meeting with Quint representatives most difficult ever (Tanjug, RTS)

The director of the Office for Kosovo and Metohija, Petar Petkovic said that a meeting between Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and representatives of the Quint states on Wednesday evening had been the most difficult one he had ever attended and that it had been clear to everyone in the room Pristina’s PM Albin Kurti was the main culprit for the current situation in Kosovo, reported Tanjug. 

Speaking to Tanjug after the meeting at the Presidency of Serbia, Petkovic said Pristina’s regulation on payment transactions, which will take effect on Thursday, was another act of violence directly aimed against the survival of Serbs in Kosovo.

“President Vucic conducted substantial, responsible discussions with Quint ambassadors and will also have numerous discussions about this tomorrow. We are doing everything to stop such behavior by Kurti. We will be making our decisions patiently and wisely, with the long-term objective in mind,” Petkovic said.

He said Vucic would make a public address in the coming days about Pristina’s decision to stop payment transactions with central Serbia and ban the Serbian dinar in Kosovo.

“The Serbs need to know that Serbia and President Vucic stand behind them, and we will never give up on our people. We will fight for protection of their rights because the Serbs have a right to live and survive in Kosovo and Metohija and have a future, payment transactions and functionality of our institutions. We will never give up on that,” Petkovic noted.

Vucic to speak with White House officials, and with Botsan-Kharchenko (Tanjug, Vecernje Novosti, Blic)

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic to speak with high-ranking officials from the administration of US President Joseph Biden, following last night’s meeting with representatives of Quint and the EU, regarding the decision of the authorities in Pristina to activate the decree on the abolition of the dinar in Kosovo, reported Tanjug agency, citing Vecernje Novosti daily. 

Vucic, according to Novosti, also spoke with two European leaders and will  have a meeting with the Russian ambassador Alexander Botsan-Kharchenko today. 

It is expected that Vucic will address the public in the next 48 hours and inform the citizens about the most important details of this series of talks.

Eparchy of Raska-Prizren: Banning dinar will block normal life in Serbian communities in Kosovo (Tanjug, KiM radio) 

The Diocese of Raska-Prizren yesterday appealed to international institutions to stop Pristina from “complete ethnic cleansing of Kosovo and Metohija”, adding that the decision of the Pristina authorities to ban dinars “will completely block normal life in Serbian communities”.

“Due to the intention of the Kosovo institutions to, contrary to numerous international advices and the strong opposition of the Serbian people in Kosovo and Metohija, prohibit the use of the dinar currency and payments in dinars in the area of Kosovo and Metohija, the Diocese of Raska-Prizren raises its voice of protest regarding this decision and appeals to the international institutions to stop Pristina in the complete ethnic cleansing of Kosovo and Metohija,” reads the statement of the diocese, reported media in Serbian language. 

It was added that the decision of Kosovo institutions to ban the dinar “will have a deep negative impact not only on the Serbian people in Kosovo and Metohija, but also on other minority communities”. 

The Eparchy also added that ”normal life will be completely blocked in Serbian communities. The ban on dinar will make it many more times difficult to pay salaries, pensions, social benefits, donations, scholarships, it will block humanitarian work on which the most socially vulnerable depend; it will make it impossible to finance health and school institutions on which life rests in areas inhabited by Serbs, and it will also have a hard impact on life of the Serbian Orthodox Church. Unfortunately, Kosovo institutions not only prevented the return of our exiled people to their homes, but actively encouraged further emigration…”it was said among other things in the Eparchy statement, reported Serbian media.

KP search clinic used by Kosovo Serbs in Pristina (N1, RTS, media)

The Kosovo Police searched a makeshift outpatient clinic in Pristina and escorted out the clinic Kosovo Serb doctors and other medical staff of the Serbian Government medical care system who provide medical care to the remaining Serbs in Kosovo’s capital, reported N1.

The medical staff was taken to the Center 1 police station, which entrance is next to the ambulance, RTS.

The Basic Prosecutor’s Office in Pristina said that, on the orders of the prosecutor and in coordination with the Kosovo Police and the Directorate for Regional Investigations in Pristina, a search of a building in central Pristina was conducted, due to the suspicion that it is being used to provide illegal medical services.

Until June 1999 this space housed a branch of the Komercijalna Bank, and then the NGO Center for Peace and Tolerance and the improvised clinic within the Serbian Government medical care system.

The police also confiscated an ambulance vehicle with Belgrade license plates, reported the RTS.

The intentions of the police remain unclear, that is, whether they wanted to search the premises and question the people there, or to lock them up and occupy the space. A few years ago, the police also attempted to take over the premises, recalled the media.

According to the Caglavica Media Center reports last night, the workers have been in the police station for more than three hours.

Danas daily reported that Minister of Internal Affairs of Kosovo, Xhelal Svecla, said in a post on FB, that ”a search was conducted in the facility belonging to the non-governmental organization Center for Peace and Tolerance Pristina, which did not respect the applicable laws on the functioning of NGOs”.

He wrote that yesterday they were ”informed about the suspicious activity of the NGO Center for Peace and Tolerance Pristina”. 

KoSSev portal reported that some Pristina media reported that the “spy center” was allegedly being searched.

Starovic: The remaining Serbs in Pristina are denied basic medical services (Tanjug)

The State Secretary in the Ministry of Defense of Serbia, Nemanja Starovic, said last night that with ‘’the invasion of the Kosovo police in the only remaining ambulance in Pristina used by Serbs, basic medical services were denied to the few remaining members of the Serbian people in that city’’.

In a post on X, Starovic recalled that before 1999, more than 40,000 Serbs lived in Pristina, and that less than 100 remained.

“And now that remaining handful are denied basic medical services,” he emphasized, reported Tanjug. 

The Serbian People’s Movement submitted documents for the registration of a new political party (Kontakt plus radio, KiM radio, Caglavica Media Center)

The Serbian People’s Movement (SNP) submitted documents for the registration of a new political party, Milija Bisevac and Branimir Stojanovic, the founders of the SNP, announced today at a press conference.

“We decided to use our capacities, knowledge and skills and to channel it through one political party that will function in the whole of Kosovo,” said Milija Bisevac

Also, as he added, they gathered to express their dissatisfaction with the ongoing policy, which, as he said, “leads the Serbs in Kosovo to ruin.”

International Media

Grenell: Kosovo’s PM Albin Kurti Is Putting American Lives At Risk (thepavlovictoday.com)

Former Special Presidential Envoy for Serbia and Kosovo, Richard Grenell, is sounding the alarm on Kosovo PM Albin Kurti, asserting that he is “putting American lives at risk” with his latest actions. “He must stop his belligerence – or the American troops should be pulled home for safety concerns,” he tells The Pavlovic Today.

Read more at: https://t.ly/ML7U_