Balkaninsight.com

President Erdogan now has Moldova in his sights as, with an election in sight, he continues his relentless pursuit of perceived enemies abroad.

Despite their limited financial resources, a number of Balkan countries are feeling the pressure to upgrade their aging fleets of mostly Russian-made fighter jets.

Belgrade declared its willingness to take over the case against two Serbian Radical Party members who are wanted by the UN court in The Hague for threatening and trying to bribe witnesses at their nationalist leader’s trial.

The former owner of the Medicus clinic in Kosovo, on trial for alleged involvement in organ-trafficking, read a document in court that he said proved the clinic had a licence to do kidney transplants.

Serbia has banned the Croatian Defence Minister Damir Krsticevic from entering Serbia in response to Croatia’s decision to bar his Serbian counterpart, Aleksandar Vulin.

Romania's Supreme Court has jailed a former business and media tycoon Sorin Ovidiu Vantu for 10 years and six months for embezzling union funds – his third prison sentence.

Kosovo’s Special Prosecution filed an indictment against a Serbian fighter who allegedly committed war crimes in the village of Mala Krusa/Krushe e Vogel during a deadly two-day attack in 1999.

Amidst foreign power meddling and resilient local strongmen, politics in the Balkans is never short on drama, yet often long on the frustrations of ordinary citizens. 

Romania's anti-discrimination body has fined a satirical website for an article targeting Social Democrat leader Liviu Dragnea ‘s relationship with his much younger partner. 

Edi Rama visited Berlin on Wednesday to win support for the opening of EU membership negotiations with Albania – but Chancellor Merkel remained uncommitted while several MPs from her party also insisted Albania is not ready.

Moves to legalise same-sex unions in the Balkan country under restricted conditions have angered socially conservative groups as well as LGBT activists.

Days before the start of the tourist season, hotel and restaurant owners in Romania's Black Sea resorts say they face the worst staff shortage in 28 years. 

Opposition MPs complain that with no one chairing the parliamentary committee that monitors the country's intelligence agency, it is impossible to check what it is doing.

The visit to Serbia of Donald Trump's former campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, has drawn claims – which he has dismissed – that his real purpose there was to seal a lobbying deal with Aleksandar Vucic.

The second-instance verdict in trial of former Bosnian Serb political leader Radovan Karadzic, who appealed against his conviction this week, is likely to be delivered by the end of the year.

Lutfi Dervishi, who is on trial for alleged involvement in organ-trafficking from the Medicus clinic in Kosovo, told a Pristina court that he once assisted a wanted Turkish doctor in a kidney transplant.

Saranda Bogujevci, survivor of a massacre of 14 Albanian women and children in Kosovo in 1999, said that a Serbian court’s decision to release one of the convicted attackers on parole was “unacceptable”.

Croatia’s cyber crimes unit has arrested a 19-year-old for allegedly running the world’s largest illegal service for hacking internet pages.

The recent high-level Russian visit to Bosnia ahead  of July’s expected visit by Russia’s foreign secretary  show Moscow is determined to take advantage of the waning of EU and US power.

Two witnesses told the Belgrade trial of former Serbian fighters how Kosovo Albanian civilians were killed and their homes torched in the villages of Zahaq and Pavlan near Cuska in May 1999.