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Tags Balkans

Tag: Balkans

From Alaska via Putin and Moscow to the Balkans and finally to North Macedonia

PHOTO: Collage: Vladimir Putin, screenshot/YoutTube; map of Alaska, public domain Facebook posts are spreading disinformation regarding Putin’s latest decree according to which Alaska, the Baltic countries, Tibet, and other territories that historically belonged to the USSR and Imperial Russia will be retrieved back. The fake news started from ESSA News (Poland), spread through the Balkans, and finally arrived in North...

The Battleground: Getting the Balkans Wrong

The Western Balkans are notoriously difficult to fathom. The evolving regional map of countries, borders, ethnicities and faiths is so complex that it requires more preparation to cover than other parts of Europe, writes Natalie Sarkic-Todd in The Battleground. Below Meta.mk News Agency republishes the article: It’s not enough to know local politics and institutions. You need to get to know...

Filip Stojanovski: Various actors are trying to undermine democracy with disinformation

At this year's "DISICON - Information Integrity’s Role in Defending Democracy" conference, Filip Stojanovski, Metamorphosis Foundation's Partnership and Resource Development Director, spoke about the foreign interventions in the process of undermining democracy, but also about Metamorphosis Foundation's efforts in the fight against disinformation, writes Portalb.mk. Stojanovski stressed that the integrity of the information and the integrity of the elections...

Ibraimi: There are indications that the Russian influence will continue in the Balkans despite the war in Ukraine

In general, I do not believe that the Russian disinformation campaign and the current support of the misperception about the war in Ukraine will affect the possible change of the foreign policy of N. Macedonia. There are currently no real opportunities for war in the Balkans. Russian disinformation by hybrid means continues to spread, giving a vain hope to...

Around 500 vultures in the Balkans killed by poisoning in the last two decades

In the last two decades, around 500 vultures in the Balkans have died by poisoning. Yet, the real numbers are much higher, since only 20% of these cases are discovered and documented. According to the Foundation for Protection of the Vultures, at least 115 vultures are dying by poisoning annually in the Balkans, as a consequence of the damaging...

Twenty thousand Covid-19 cases have been registered in the Balkans, more than one third of them are in Serbia

Two months since the first case of COVID-19 was registered in Croatia, as the first Balkan nation to have officially confirmed the presence of the virus, there almost 20,000 inhabitants of 10 Balkan nations that have been infected with the virus. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CB8HhRy16kM What's most striking about the official statistics published by the World Health Organization, the Johns Hopkins University and Worldometer,...

Albania: Explosion of anonymous web portals filled with unverified news

In recent years, online media in Albania has boomed. However, many of them are not transparent and "produce" unverified news, Meta's correspondent reports from Tirana. One of these media portals is Pamfleti.net. Much of the news published are actually claims presented in the form of facts. For example, one of the most viewed news on the portal is an article entitled...

Albania’s national theater according to mayor Veliaj, “is a barrack, a fascist building”

The topic of the law that would demolish the National Theatre in order to build a new one in Albania keeps being the main topic in the public discourse. This law was voted by the majority on July 5, 2018, despite continuous protests from the artist’s community and activists.  According to this law, the new theater would be built in the...

Bildt: “Heavy” EU states need to get involved in resolving the name dispute

It will require some heavy lifting by heavy EU states and institutions to get a Macedonia name compromise, but without one the EU Balkan strategy risks collapse, said the Co-Chair of the European Council for Foreign Relations and former Swedish Foreign Minister, Carl Bildt. “I think it will require some heavy lifting by heavy EU states and institutions to get a...

Tusk: The Balkans’ history is more dramatic than the Game of Thrones series even though there aren’t any dragons there

The President of the European Council, Donald Tusk looks upon the history of the Balkans as more dramatic and more interesting than the popular TV series Game of Thrones. At the inauguration of the Bulgarian EU presidency in Sofia, he warned against the Game of Thrones screenplay happening in the Western Balkans, where Brussels is trying to maintain tight...

“Kathimerini”: Athens to stick to strategy to support the unified state of Macedonia

The Greek daily newspaper “Kathimerini” in an analysis of the situation in Macedonia stressed that this political crisis is one of the worst moments for the country since the conflict in 2000 and that the state is facing the serious risk of collapse. The newspaper comments that the Greek government is distancing themselves from the political and inter-ethnic tension in...

“Koha Ditore”: At least seven ISIS fighters are hiding around Skopje

At least seven Kosovo citizens who fought for the of the Islamic State of Syria and Iraq (ISIS) in Syria, three weeks ago returned to the Balkans and took refuge in the region of Skopje, reports the Kosovo daily "Koha Ditore". Relying on information from intelligence agencies, including the Kosovo intelligence services, the newspaper writes that the jihadists who had returned...

Kotevski: MOI is ready to respond to all threats

"The Ministry of Interior (MOI) monitors the security situation and all incoming announcements, knowledge and information, and, if necessary, the Ministry is ready to act," stated Deputy Minister of Public Relations at the Ministry of Interior Ivo Kotevski for META in connection with the information published by Albanian and Kosovo media for alleged terrorist attacks that members of the...