• Some anti COVID measures will become stricter, Health Minister says (KTV)
• Kosovo reports over 100 new cases with COVID-19 on Wednesday (Express)
• Escobar expected to visit Kosovo in January (Albanian Post)
• Hasani: Kosovo Serbs cannot be part of Vucic’s referendum (media)
• “Kosovo violated international relations by expelling Russian UN staff” (Telegrafi)
• Kosovo’s energy crisis halts cryptocurrency production (Prishtina Insight)
• Kosovo experts question legality of cryptocurrency mining ban (BIRN)
• U.S. imposes new sanctions on Bosnian Serb leader Dodik (Reuters)
• Osmani on sanctions on Dodik: A decisive and much-needed decision (media)
• Why Serbia’s President is a threat to Europe (foreignpolicy.com)
• A hotbed of cloak-and-dagger skullduggery in the Hague (nationalinterest.org)

Some anti COVID measures will become stricter, Health Minister says (KTV)

Kosovo’s Minister of Health, Rifat Latifi, told KTV on Wednesday that some of the anti COVID-19 measures will become stricter in the coming days. “There is an increase in new cases, but it is still small compared to other countries in the world. In the coming days, some of the measures will become stricter,” he said. “The situation is stable and perhaps we have the best situation in Europe and compared to other countries in the world, but this does not mean that we should relax or ease the measures or think that COVID is over.”

Latifi also said “it is very likely we will face another wave just like other countries”. “An encouraging element is that Omicron is not as dangerous compared to the previous variants. Nevertheless, we need to take all necessary precautions,” he added.

Kosovo reports over 100 new cases with COVID-19 on Wednesday (Express)

Kosovo reported over 100 new COVID-19 cases for the second day in a row on Wednesday. The Ministry of Health said in a statement that of 5,561 tests, 107 samples tested positive with COVID-19. No new deaths have been reported in the last 24 hours. There are 740 active cases with COVID-19 in Kosovo.

The Ministry of Health, according to the updated data from the National Institute of Public Health of Kosovo, informs as follows: 2,639 vaccine doses were administered in the last 24 hours. 1,679.639 doses have been administered throughout Kosovo since the vaccination started. To date, 785,291 citizens have been vaccinated with the second dose.

Escobar expected to visit Kosovo in January (Albanian Post)

The U.S. Special Representative for the Western Balkans, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Gabriel Escobar, is expected to visit Kosovo in January. According to Albanian Post sources, the American diplomat will visit Kosovo during the second week of January, when the new U.S. Ambassador Jeffrey Hovenier is expected to arrive in Kosovo and present his credentials to the President, Vjosa Osmani. The U.S. Embassy has not yet issued an official announcement of Escobar's visit to Kosovo. Escobar has previously visited Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Macedonia and Albania.

Hasani: Kosovo Serbs cannot be part of Vucic’s referendum (media)

Enver Hasani, former President of the Constitutional Court of Kosovo, said on Wednesday that Kosovo Serbs cannot be part of the referendum that Serbia plans to hold on January 16. “The Ahtisaari Package is not in force. It is valid as Kosovo’s pledge in terms of the legal and constitutional system, namely that Kosovo will be a multiethnic republic and state. The Ahtisaari Package does not apply for legal issues and voting rights. These issues are well defined and integrated in the Constitution of Kosovo … The Kosovo Serbs cannot have two loyalties on matters of sovereignty. This can happen only in a provisional period and with a comprehensive agreement,” Hasani was quoted as saying in an interview.

“Kosovo violated international relations by expelling Russian UN staff” (Telegrafi)

A Prishtina-based foreign policy commentator, Emir Abrashi, told RTV Dukagjini on Wednesday that Kosovo should not have declared the Russian UNMIK staff member persona non grata “as this was not in line with the Vienna Convention”. “A country can declare persona non grata the diplomat of another country, but this does not apply for UN staff members. In this case, Kosovo should not have taken this action because this is not in line with the Vienna Convention,” he said.

According to Abrashi, Kosovo violated international relations and the Vienna Convention and that it could face consequences for this. “In the best-case scenario, there could be a reprimand for Kosovo, whereas in the worst-case scenario, UNMIK might not respect the decision and extend the mandate of the Russian official and Kosovo cannot do anything to expel him because he has immunity,” he argued.

Kosovo’s energy crisis halts cryptocurrency production (Prishtina Insight)

Government orders stop to production of cryptocurrencies due to the huge amount of electricity extraction uses up.

Kosovo’s Minister of Economy, Artane Rizvanolli, on Tuesday announced that the government was banning further production of cryptocurrencies in Kosovo, acting on the recommendations of the Technical Committee handling “Emergency measures in the energy supply”.

Rizvanolli said all relevant institutions will be engaged to identify and stop the production of cryptocurrencies. According to her, the main purpose was to reduce the risk of sudden or long-term shortages of energy production capacity, transmission or distribution while the country overcomes the energy crisis.

Kosovo has been facing a serious energy crisis for a month, as a result of which citizens are suffering regular electricity cuts. As a result, the government had declared a 60-day “energy emergency”.

On December 3, the Tax Administration called on all citizens of Kosovo who generate income from cryptocurrencies to declare them and pay taxes on them. Kosovo so far has not adopted a law regulating the cryptocurrencies market.

Kosovo is not the only country to ban the production of cryptocurrencies. North Macedonia, China, Turkey, Russia, Bolivia, Algeria, Colombia, Algeria, Egypt and Indonesia are other countries that have also banned production.

Since 2019, Bitcoin has made headlines with its worldwide spread, followed by other cryptocurrencies, but it has also been criticized over its use in suspicious transactions and over the excessive use of electricity to extract them.

BIRN reported a few months ago on the cryptocurrencies business in the four northern Serb-run municipalities of the country. The investigation highlighted how attics, basements, garages and even whole houses in northern Kosovo were being rented out for cryptocurrencies, a lucrative business when the electricity it uses is “free”, as in paid for by the rest of the country.

Kosovo experts question legality of cryptocurrency mining ban (BIRN)

The Kosovo government’s decision to ban cryptocurrency mining, citing energy concerns, has drawn questions and criticism concerning its legal basis.

Arber Jashari, a Kosovo-based legal expert, told BIRN: “There is not enough of a legal basis for the ban of cryptocurrency mining, considering there is no special law that regulates this issue.”

He was referring to the Tuesday statement of the Minister of Economy, Artane Rizvanolli, announcing the ban on cryptocurrency mining, referencing emergency measures imposed for electricity protection.

“The Law on Electricity allows the government, with the approval of parliament, to take restrictive measures in energy administration, but does not supply many details,” Jashari noted to BIRN.

He said Kosovo needed a proper legal framework on cryptomining, “which would include licensing, electricity tariffs, restrictive measures and their taxation … including any reason to stop it as an activity … in accordance with European practices and standards”.

Minister Rizvanolli wrote on Facebook on Tuesday: “Last week I decided on Emergency Measures through which cryptocurrency mining is banned in all of the territory of the Republic of Kosovo.

“Law enforcement institutions will stop the production of the activity in question with the support of the relevant institutions, which will identify the locations of cryptocurrency mining,” she added.

The decision was taken as part of Emergency Measures for Electricity, imposed by the government on December 24 to “restrict the energy supply, valid for a maximum of 60 days”. The government implemented power reductions on December 22 due to the serious energy crisis.

While the government has the legal basis to take restrictive measures on electricity, there appears to be no legal framework to ban cryptocurrency mining.

Kreshnik Gashi, a political scientist, also tweeted on the issue: “It’s not really legal! The government can’t ban an activity that is neither defined nor regulated properly by law. It needs a law. If a law was as arbitrary as this decision, it would be against the constitution. Hence, this is very blurry.”

Gashi also called the ban on cryptocurrency mining “illiberal” for being against internet freedom, “impossible to implement”, and a “PR stunt” to draw the attention of international media but not produce an actual effect.

BIRN contacted the Kosovo Ministry of Economy on how it would implement the ban and the legal basis for the decision but received no response by the time of publication. Police also provided no information on the methods of implementation of this decision.

In October 2021, Kosovo announced it drafted a law on cryptocurrency which parliament was expected to adopt by the end of the last year but the regulation is still pending.

The Chairman of the Committee on Economy, Ferat Shala, was cited as saying that most activities related to cryptocurrency are registered in northern Kosovo.

This phenomenon in the north, and associated energy costs, according to him, pushed the committee to accelerate the drafting of the law to regulate the sector.

“The good thing about this is that all operators in this sector will know that we are working, monitoring and at some point will be subject to applicable law,” he was cited as saying.

BIRN previously reported on how attics, basements, garages and even whole houses in Serb majority northern Kosovo were being rented out for cryptomining, mainly because for 22 years, northern Kosovo has paid nothing for electricity, the vital component of crytomining.

One local cryptominer told Reuters on condition of anonymity that “he was paying around 170 euros per month for electricity, and getting around 2,400 euros per month in profit from mining”.

U.S. imposes new sanctions on Bosnian Serb leader Dodik (Reuters)

The United States on Wednesday imposed fresh sanctions on Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik and current and former officials as Washington warned of further action against those linked to destabilization or corruption.

The U.S. Treasury Department in a statement accused Dodik, already subject to U.S. sanctions under a different authority, of corruption and threatening the stability and territorial integrity of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The Treasury also slapped sanctions on Banja Luka-based media outlet Alternativna Television (ATV), accusing Dodik of acquiring it to further his own agenda and exerting personal control over it.

ATV strongly condemned the U.S. sanctions as a direct strike on media freedoms and democracy and its management dismissed allegations about ties with Dodik as "senseless."

"We are surprised with such a decision and regard as extremely trivial that a great state should take individual insinuations about ties between our media house and politicians as credible sources," ATV said in a statement sent to Reuters.

The Treasury designations, which freeze any of Dodik and ATV's U.S. assets and bar Americans from dealing with them, are the first use of an executive order issued in June allowing the United States to target those threatening peace or stability in the Western Balkans.

The U.S. State Department also barred current and former Bosnia and Herzegovina officials from entering the United States, targeting Milan Tegeltija, a former president of the high judicial council, and Mirsad Kukic, a lawmaker and president of the Movement for Democratic Action.

Tegeltija said in a tweet that the sanctions were not based on court proceedings so he did not feel he should defend himself, but were a "result of the politics which contains a brutal political pressure."

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken in a separate statement warned of further action: "Other leaders and entities linked to corrupt or destabilizing actors may also be subject to future actions by the U.S. Government."

Bosnia is experiencing its gravest political crisis since the end of the war in the 1990s, reviving fears of a breakup after Bosnian Serbs blocked the work of the central government and Serb lawmakers voted to start pulling the autonomous Serb Republic out of state institutions.

Dodik, who serves as the Serb member of Bosnia's tripartite inter-ethnic presidency, wants to roll back all reforms made after the war and return to the 1995 constitution under which the state was represented by basic institutions only while all powers had belonged to the regions.

"Milorad Dodik's destabilizing corrupt activities and attempts to dismantle the Dayton Peace Accords, motivated by his own self-interest, threaten the stability of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the entire region," Brian Nelson, Treasury's under secretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, said in the statement.

The U.S.-brokered Dayton peace agreement in 1995 ended 3-1/2 years of ethnic warfare in Bosnia. Some 100,000 people were killed in the conflict and 2 million forced from their homes.

Dodik said he was again being punished but did not know for what, telling Bosnian Serb news agency Srna the United States was accusing him of corruption despite the absence of any criminal proceeding against him. He added he has not brought into question constitutional order in Bosnia or its stability in any way.

"If they think they will discipline me in this way, they are very wrong. I have now only got a motive to fight for the rights that have been taken away from us for 26 years," he said.

The international high representative in Bosnia, Christian Schmidt, said that the U.S. decision to impose sanctions on Dodik is "a logical consequence of the destructive and dangerous attitude in reference to his failure to meet the basic requirements of responsible leadership."

Osmani on sanctions on Dodik: A decisive and much-needed decision (media)

Kosovo President Vjosa Osmani took to Twitter to comment on the U.S. administration’s decision to impose actions on Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik. “A decisive and much-needed decision taken by the U.S. administration. In addition to corrupt activities, Dodik has been actively threatening peace, security and territorial integrity of Bosnia and Herzegovina. I commend this decision and call on other international partners to take similar action,” Osmani tweeted.

Osmani’s Chief of Staff, Blerim Vela, also commented on the decision. “The United States announced new sanctions targeting Milorad Dodik for his destabilizing and corrupt activity in Bosnia. Dodik, Veselinovic and Radoicic are the criminal nexus of ‘Serbian world’ political ideology that is promoted by Serbia’s regime,” Vela wrote in a Twitter post.

Why Serbia’s President is a threat to Europe (foreignpolicy.com)

Opinion piece by Florian Bieber, the coordinator of the Balkans in Europe Policy Advisory Group and holds the Jean Monnet chair in the Europeanization of Southeastern Europe at the University of Graz, Austria.

In November and December 2021, thousands of Serbian citizens took to the streets, blocking key roads for three weekends to protest a proposed law facilitating expropriation seen as favoring a large-scale lithium mine planned in Western Serbia by the multinational company Rio Tinto.

The protesters are primarily concerned about the lack of transparency around the mine project; they also fear serious environmental damage and large-scale corruption. During the first protests, thugs with sticks beat protesters and tried to drive through the protests in a bulldozer in Sabac, the closest city to the planned mine. They were driven to the location in government cars, and there was little doubt that they were threatening demonstrators on behalf of the regime.

Today, no decision can be taken without Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic, who features on talk shows for hours on a weekly basis on all main TV channels. He heralded the deal as a major investment and offered it direct political support. Nevertheless, the demonstrations highlight that while Vucic might have absolute command of the country—188 of the 250 members of parliament were elected on his party list and his party controls nearly every municipality in the country—his rule is not uncontested.

After the protests gained momentum, Vucic at first appeared to concede and withdraw support for the project, but soon afterward, on Dec. 27, 2021, he reiterated his support and insisted it would go ahead after all.

Read full piece at: https://bit.ly/3t6m0P7

A hotbed of cloak-and-dagger skullduggery in the Hague (nationalinterest.org)

Hague-based prosecutors consistently fail to live up to the high-minded ideals that they purportedly serve.

The Dutch city of The Hague has a reputation for judicial integrity and independence. It is the seat of the International Court of Justice, the International Criminal Court, and a number of ad hoc tribunals that include the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, and the Kosovo Specialist Chambers Tribunal, whose remit is to try Kosovars accused of war crimes in that nation’s struggle for independence fifteen years ago.

Unfortunately, Hague-based prosecutors consistently fail to live up to the high-minded ideals that they purportedly serve. In two high-profile cases involving Lebanon and Kosovo, their overzealous use of tainted evidence and other examples of prosecutorial misconduct call into serious question the integrity of these courts.

Read more at: https://bit.ly/3F1bx9I