Kosovo’s government is in fighting mood, taxing Serbian goods and vowing to form its own ‘army’ – but it is going for the wrong targets.

“Revenge is a dish best served cold,” says an old English proverb. It clearly hasn’t reached Kosovo. Within hours of Serbia blocking Kosovo’s attempt to join Interpol, Kosovo had slapped a 100-per-cent tax on Serbian goods, up from 10 per cent previously. Touché!

Only it isn’t touché. Kosovo’s sword is blunt and rusty, its gun unloaded.

It claimed to have kicked the habit. But Montenegro is again at the heart of a global trade in illegal cigarettes. Its Balkan neighbours risk getting hooked too.

In the nineties, illegal cigarette shipments used to leave Montenegro’s port of Bar by speedboat, darting across the Strait of Otranto into the waiting arms of the Italian mafia.

See at: https://bit.ly/2GcT9BT

The social media giant has removed a network of pages, with millions of followers, tied to the Knights Templar International, a ‘Christian militant’ organisation active in the Balkans.

See at:http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/article/facebook-pulls-pages-linked-to-rightists-active-in-balkans-10-03-2018

While some support a solution to the Kosovo dispute as a way for Serbia to move forward, others are hostile to concessions – and indifferent to the prospect of European Union membership.

See at:http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/article/serbian-students-doubtful-about-deal-on-kosovo-09-17-2018

If Serbia and Kosovo manage to solve their decade-long dispute, the five EU countries that did not recognize Kosovo may have to adjust their foreign policies fast.

The five EU countries that have not recognized Kosovo might find themselves embarrassed and having to adjust their policies rapidly if Serbia and Kosovo agree on a final solution and get support for this from the West.

Slovakia, one of the five EU states that withheld recognition, says it is already preparing for a rethink.

A final agreement should be based on devolving power to Serb-majority municipalities – not on territorial swaps that will only create further regional instability.

See at: http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/article/changing-kosovo-s-borders-will-merely-reward-serbia-s-bullying-09-04-2018

To mark International Day of the Disappeared, relatives of people who went missing in Bosnia, Croatia, Kosovo and Albania during the 1990s wars or under Communism describe the agony of waiting decades to discover their loved ones’ fate.

See more at: http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/article/missing-persons-balkan-families-suffer-as-search-goes-on-08-29-2018

Serbian law experts say that any final deal with Kosovo, changing the country’s borders, will affect the constitution and must therefore go to a referendum.

As Serbian leaders hint at a referendum on the future status of Kosovo, legal experts insists that the status of the former province must be regulated by changes to Serbia’s constitution, regardless of any possible deal with Pristina.

Serbian and Bosnian Serb leaders will not be appeased by the partition of Kosovo – merely emboldened to try and unravel Bosnia as well.

Aleksandar Vucic’s government in Serbia has been sabotaging negotiations with Kosovo over the latter’s international status. That much is apparent to anyone who has followed the Belgrade-Pristina dialogue since its inception in 2011.

By Perparim Isufi, Maja Zivanovic BIRN Pristina, Belgrade

Analysts say recent heated rhetoric about the possibility of border changes will affect the popularity of Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and his Kosovo counterpart Hashim Thaci - but probably not enough to unseat them.

The recent intensive exchange of statements about border ‘corrections’ between Serbia and Kosovo will affect the popularity of both presidents, analysts believe.