Russia has 'playbook' for covert influence in Eastern Europe: studyWashington, 13 October 2016 (MIA) - Russia has mounted a campaign of covert economic and political measures to manipulate five countries in central and eastern Europe, discredit the West's liberal democratic model, and undermine trans-Atlantic ties, a report by a private U.S. research group said.
The report released on Thursday said Moscow had co-opted sympathetic politicians, strived to dominate energy markets and other economic sectors, and undermined anti-corruption measures in an attempt to gain sway over governments in Bulgaria, Hungary, Latvia, Serbia, and Slovakia.
"In certain countries, Russian influence has become so pervasive and endemic that it has challenged national stability as well as a country's Western orientation and Euro-Atlantic stability," said the report of a 16-month study by the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington and the Sofia, Bulgaria-based Center for the Study of Democracy.
The publication of "The Kremlin Playbook: Understanding Russian Influence in Eastern and Central Europe" coincides with an unprecedented debate in the United States over whether Russia is attempting to interfere in the Nov. 8 presidential election with cyber attacks and the release of emails from the campaign of Democratic Party candidate Hillary Clinton.
The former U.S. Secretary of State's campaign has said the Kremlin is trying to help Republican Donald Trump win the White House.
On Friday, the U.S. government for the first time formally accused Russia of hacking Democratic Party organizations. Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday rejected allegations of meddling in the election.
The Russian Embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment on the report, which will be presented at CSIS in Washington on Thursday. Reuters received an advance copy.
On Sunday, however, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told Russian state TV the United States was increasing its hostility toward Moscow. Lavrov complained that NATO had been steadily moving military infrastructure closer to Russia's borders with Eastern European countries and criticized sanctions imposed over Moscow's role in the Ukraine crisis.
A former U.S. State Department official is the report's lead author and U.S. officials said they concur with the findings on Russia's involvement in Eastern Europe.
"The Russians have been engaged in a sustained campaign to recapture what Putin considers their rightful buffer in Eastern Europe, and to undermine not just NATO and the EU, but the entire democratic foundation of both institutions," said a U.S. official who has studied Russian behavior since before the Soviet Union's collapse in 1991.
The official requested anonymity because, he said, the White House has ordered officials not to publicly discuss hostile Russian activities.
Those activities, he said, include bribery, propaganda, disinformation, "the occasional" assassination of Kremlin critics at home or abroad, and now using the internet to undermine opponents and weaken Western institutions.
"The Kremlin Playbook" cites a series of Russian efforts to expand its writ in central and eastern Europe.
They range from "megadeal" projects such as the 12.2 billion euro contract to build two new nuclear reactors in Hungary, awarded to Russia under opaque terms, to the cultivation of pro-Russian businessmen who gain political office and then shield Moscow's interests, it said.
In Bulgaria, Russia's economic presence is so strong, averaging 22 percent of GDP between 2005 and 2014, "that the country is at high risk of Russian-influenced state capture," the report said.
Heather Conley, the former U.S. official and lead author of the report, said in an interview that the study was intended to highlight a challenge that has received insufficient attention from American and European policymakers.
"The first step is to acknowledge that which is happening," said Conley. "What is at stake here is how we view ourselves and the functioning of our democracy."
The report proposes measures to curb what it calls an "unvirtuous cycle" of covert Russian influence. They include more focus on illicit financial flows and revamping U.S. assistance programs to stress strengthening governance and combating Russian influence.
It is not the only study this year to highlight Russia's measures in the region.
"Russia has opened a new political front within Europe by supporting the far right against the liberal European Union," the Centre for Historical Analysis and Conflict Research, a British Army research group, said in February.
Governments such as those in Hungary and Greece "openly sympathize" with Putin, it said. "The result is that there is a substantial 'fifth column' in western and central Europe which weakens our response to Russian aggression." ik/16:04
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Speaker urges Kosovan Parliament to move quickly on border treaty with Montenegro
Pristina, 14 October 2016 (MIA) - Kosovan Parliament Speaker Kadri Vejseli asked the representatives to approve the border demarcation treaty with Montenegro as soon as possible, in order to unlock Kosovo's EU integration, MIA correspondent reports. Opposition parties blocked the treaty claiming that it gives Montenegro parts of Kosovan territory and some of them have even threatened war.
"This issue needs to be returned to Parliament urgently. International representatives demand that from us. There is no time to waste in this process. Demarcation needs to be complete and Kosovo needs to walk along the path of European integration", Vejseli said.
Still, he wouldn't say whether he believes that the treaty will be approved by the end of the year. Montenegro is in the midst of securing its NATO membership, and the issue of its borders can affect this process. Kosovo's opposition frequently outflanks the Government on nationalist issues, such as the creation of a war crimes court for former guerrilla commanders, the rights of ethnic Serbs or the status of a major mining complex that is disputed between Serbia and Kosovo.cc/08:39
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Montenegro PM accuses Russia of financing anti-NATO campaign
Podgorica, 14 October 2016 (MIA) - Russia is pouring money into Montenegro's election campaign in an attempt to derail the country's progress towards joining NATO, the country's Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic said on Thursday, three days ahead of an election.
Djukanovic, who has led the tiny Balkan country as president or prime minister for more than 25 years, is facing his toughest ever electoral challenge from opposition parties that accuse him of cronyism and of treating Montenegro as a personal fiefdom.
In an interview with Reuters, he said opposition parties were being financed by Moscow, which saw Sunday's parliamentary vote as a final opportunity to stop the Balkan region's rush to integrate with the European Union and the Atlantic alliance.
"Russia has engaged a serious financial potential, which is I assume, made possible through its oligarchs and funneled through secret channels through Serbia and Republika Srpska," Djukanovic said, referring to the Serbian part of Bosnia, Montenegro's northern neighbor.
"Traditional opposition, pro-Serb parties are now proponents of Russian interests in the Balkans," he added.
"These elections are the last chance for opponents of Montenegro and the Balkans adopting European values," he said.
Russia and opposition parties have denied allegations that Moscow has intervened in the election campaign, though Russia's foreign minister has dubbed as "irresponsible" NATO's planned admission of Montenegro.
Sunday's vote pits Djukanovic's Democratic Party of Socialists against two major opposition alliances, containing a mixture of pro-Serb and pro-Western parties.
They accuse Djukanovic of using scare tactics to stay in power.
"He labels every opponent a danger to Montenegro and its state interests," Nebojsa Medojevic, a senior figure in the opposition Democratic Front alliance, said on Thursday.
He also accused Djukanovic of being the one most closely aligned with Moscow's interests.
"Russian interests and influence entered Montenegro during Djukanovic's (rule). In 2005, Djukanovic communicated closely with Russian official politics, informal centers of power, the Russian mafia and intelligence structures," Medojevic said.
He pledged to hold Djukanovic to account for alleged corruption if he took power.
The Adriatic republic of 620,000 people has strong economic and traditional ties with Russia, another predominantly Orthodox Christian country. But Djukanovic said Montenegro had to look westwards.
"The stability of the Western Balkans and (European) integration go hand in hand," he said.
The European Union and the US see closer integration with Europe's political and economic alliances as the best way of maintaining peace in a region, which was wracked by war in the 1990s when Yugoslavia broke up into seven successor states.
Croatia and Slovenia have already joined NATO and the EU, while Serbia and Bosnia are both pursuing EU membership.
NATO membership is a sensitive issue in Montenegro, which was bombed by NATO in 1999 when it and Serbia were all that remained of Yugoslavia. Nonetheless, it is nearing the end of the accession process. Ten countries have already ratified its accession treaty. ik/11:43
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Turkish-trained forces to join Iraqi Mosul operation: report
Istanbul, 14 October 2016 (MIA) - Forces trained by the Turkish military at the Bashiqa camp in northern Iraq will take part in the planned operation to drive Islamic State out of the city of Mosul, Turkey's state-run Anadolu Agency reported on Friday.
It cited officials who took part in talks between Turkey and the United States, as well as Iraqi sources, as saying the operation would begin within a few days, "if there is no extraordinary development".
Turkey has been locked in a fierce row with Iraq over who should take part in the Mosul assault. On Thursday, President Tayyip Erdogan's spokesman warned any mistake in the operation could result in hundreds of thousands of refugees.
Mosul, home to up to 1.5 million people, has been at the heart of Islamic State's self-declared caliphate in Iraq since 2014. The U.S.-backed assault on the city has been expected to begin this month.
Anadolu said the Turkish-trained forces would participate in the operation together with the Iraqi army and the Peshmerga forces of the Kurdistan Regional Government in northern Iraq, with the latter launching the operation.
Turkish soldiers have been training Sunni Muslim and allied Peshmerga units at Bashiqa.
Baghdad's Shi'ite-led government objects to the Turkish military presence and wants its own forces at the forefront of the Mosul assault. Turkey fears the use of Shi'ite militias, which Iraqi army units have relied on in the past, will stoke sectarian unrest.
Broadcaster CNN Turk said the head of Turkey's armed forces, General Hulusi Akar, was going to the United States to attend a meeting of his counterparts from coalition countries.
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