"Albanian trail" in Russia's big game to destabilize the EU

The Russian Federation does not abandon demands for destabilization of Europe by means of terrorist acts committed by some "Muslim radicals".

About it пишет military and political observer Oleksandr Kovalenko.

The immediate leader of the partially recognized Republic of Kosovo Hashim Thaci, who left the post of president, was taken into custody by the Special Court in The Hague, as part of the trial on crimes against humanity.

In the 1990s, Hashim Thaci headed one of the units that took part in the fighting for the independence of the republic, and later was one of the leaders of the "Kosovo Liberation Army". For Serbia and de facto Russia, Tachi is an enemy, and therefore, his arrest was received there "with cheers", already calling it a manifestation of the West's weakness.

In turn, Thacha's concession is not a manifestation of the weakness of the West, but rather another slap in the face to both Russia and Serbia, when the head of the country, suspected of war crimes under international law, voluntarily surrenders himself to the hands of justice, instead of hiding for decades in bunkers and sheds .

On the other hand, these events suspiciously coincided with the terrorist act in Vienna, which focused attention on the Albanian trace of the terrorist's ethnic origin. He focused attention literally on the eve of Hashim Thacha's arrest.

In fact, this event was supposed to focus attention on the "Albanian trail" and not only to add to the series of other terrorist acts with a religious component, but also to subliminally set Europeans against Hashim Thacha. That is, the curator of the terrorist act killed two birds with one stone, created another wave of anti-Muslim sentiment in the EU, and also issued a moral sentence to someone who has not even appeared on the dock yet.

And asking who this curator is, the answer comes not only to the extent that the investigation reveals Russians with dual citizenship among the suspects in the organization of the "shooting in Vienna", but also to the extent that the curious delve into the modern history of the Balkans.

In my recent article "Radical refugees in the service of the Kremlin in Europe and around the world", I described in detail how Russia uses the factor of refugees and emigrants in order to create a network of agent cells to perform various tasks. Including those of a terrorist nature.

But in the very concept of the Russian network of sleeper terrorist cells in Europe, the Balkans play a very important role, both as a supplier of weapons for terrorist attacks and as a resource base.

In 2017, when Russian propaganda tried to divert the attention of the world public from the Afghan terrorist organization Taliban by means of ISIL, and brought it to the international political arena in every possible way, the Balkans played the role of a lightning rod for Moscow.

Traditionally, in the Balkans, the Russian GU GSH of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation housed the most extensive agent network, thanks to which Russian intelligence easily manages to use this platform as the main one in the European underbelly. In recent years, one of the main projects of the Russian GRU in this region has become the cultivation of an ethnic conflict with a religious component, into which Moscow has successfully integrated the ISIS narrative.

Then, as well as now, in addition to officials, in particular the Head of the Anti-Terrorist Center of the CIS member states, Colonel-General of the Police Andrey Novikov, the cultivation of these narratives began to be cultivated by the Russian mass media directly attached to the General Directorate of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, including Alexander Kots. spreading information waves about radical Islamists with combat experience in Iraq and Syria, flooding Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as Kosovo.

At the present time, the same Russian propagandists simultaneously spin not only the theme of the terrorist attack in Vienna, committed by an Albanian radical, while completely ignoring the "support group" of Russian citizens, but also force the cultivation of the necessary narratives regarding the case of Hashim Thacha.

Just as in 2017, when with the beginning of the defeat of ISIL in Syria and Iraq, Russian propaganda began to spread messages about the consolidation of ISIL in Afghanistan and the Balkans, so that the Afghan Taliban would present itself as a lesser evil compared to ISIL, and provoke an explosion in the Balkans. on the basis of the Christian-Muslim conflict, now we can see an identical play-out of the old template in Vienna.

And what is especially important to understand is the topic of inter-religious confrontation, the same Alexander Kots mentioned just a month ago during his business trip to Nagorno-Karabakh, where he also used fakes and manipulations to benefit the narrative about the "Orthodox Jihad" and the "Muslim threat".

In fact, the Balkans are becoming the most convenient platform for the Kremlin to destabilize Europe. In 2016, Moscow planned to subdue Montenegro by means of a coup d'état. Last year, Russian agents through the criminal community of Serbia and Kosovo tried to destabilize the region, creating a prerequisite for an inter-ethnic conflict.

Yes, so far the Russians have failed in their plans, but this year a number of events may play into the hands of the architects of chaos. This is a series of terrorist acts in Europe, and the above-mentioned trial in The Hague, and even the death of the Metropolitan of the Montenegrin and Primorsky Serbian Orthodox Church, the main conductor of Russian religious narratives in the region — Amfilochia (Risto Radovych). By the way, the pro-Russian Ukrainian Metropolitan Onufriy of the Russian Orthodox Church actively helped Amfilohiy in destabilizing Montenegro on religious grounds.

And therefore, Russia, which has not abandoned its plans for the destabilization of Europe, can now use a wider complex of "preparations" than ever before, at the same time, focusing on the very convenient "Albanian track".