Balkan News

Serbs carried out combat and counter-intelligence missions for several pro-Russia paramilitary units including the notorious Wagner group of mercenaries, BIRN has learned.

A Hungarian news site on Wednesday managed to film Macedonia’s fugitive ex-Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski at a restaurant in Budapest, where he fled to dodge a jail sentence at home.

Montenegro's Constitutional Court ruled that opposition Democratic Front MP Nebojsa Medojevic should be released, almost two weeks after he was jailed for refusing to testify in a corruption case.

A local journalist says unknown persons fired shots and set his home on fire in the Belgrade suburb of Vrcin because his reporting on corruption had angered local mafias.

A new BIRN report on the state of the media in Serbia notes abuses of funding, lack of pluralism in terms of content, an unclear legislative framework and administrative pressure on independent media as some of the most concerning issues.

As US State Department asks Congress to approve the sale of Israeli F-16 aircraft to Croatia, the US embassy in Zagreb has reconfirmed Washington's strong support for its NATO ally's defence upgrade.

The chief prosecutor at the Mechanism for International Criminal Tribunals, Serge Brammertz, condemned the celebration of war criminals and the denial of war crimes, including the Srebrenica genocide.

A fourth senior Kosovo Liberation Army ex-fighter, Remzi Shala, said he has been invited for interview by the Specialist Prosecutor’s Office in The Hague - but insisted that he will not comply.

Pro-European opposition parties have accused Romania’s government of backing a corrupt regime in Moldova – and of blocking the release of a damning international report on democratic failings in the country.  

A Croatian plan to adopt a declaration on the rights of Croats living in Bosnia and Herzegovina has sparked allegations that it's an attempt to undermine the neighbouring country's sovereignty.

The former British prime minister met Kosovo President Hashim Thaci in a personal capacity this month and is not involved in any project in Kosovo, the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change told BIRN.

Israel’s policy towards the Balkan states might incoherent until you understand how it is grouping these countries by the kind of relationship it seeks to foster with them.

Around 140 journalists and media workers were killed during and after the violent break-up of Yugoslavia, but only one person has ever been convicted of responsibility for any of their deaths.

The Serb member of the Bosnian tripartite presidency, Milorad Dodik, cancelled consultations on the election of the Bosnian Council of Ministers' new chairman because there was no Republika Srpska flag in the room.

Former Bosnian Serb political leader Radovan Karadzic asked the UN court in The Hague to grant him a provisional release until the final verdict in his trial next year.

The Specialist Prosecutor’s Office in The Hague, which is probing wartime and post-war crimes, has asked to interview former senior Kosovo Liberation figures Sami Lushtaku and Sokol Dobruna, their lawyers said.

The chief prosecutor at the Hague war crimes, Serge Brammertz, told the UN Security Council that the Zagreb government is effectively blocking cases against former Croatian Army and Croatian Defence Council fighters.

Three former Bosnian Army soldiers convicted of crimes against Croat civilian detainees in the Mostar area in 1993 had their sentences increased on appeal.

The European Parliament adopted a report supporting Romania and Bulgaria's bids to join the border-free Schengen Zone, despite a lack of consensus among European Council members.  

A new report by international watchdog Human Rights Watch accused Croatian police of abusing, beating and extorting money from migrants and refugees while not allowing them to seek asylum.