Balkanalysis.com

Most Macedonians had no idea when Microsoft arrived in their midst several weeks ago. In August, the company’s office in Skopje was still so new that a press office had not been set up. Media requests are being diverted through a PR office whose information is woefully inadequate and vague. Actual Microsoft workers are loath [...]

On 19 September, the leaders of Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Belarus met in Yalta, and came to a historic agreement on forming a “Common Economic Space.” The zone, loosely uniting the four largest former Soviet states, has significant ramifications. It was created “…with the intention of opening borders to trade, unifying tax and customs systems [...]

In a Western world of prohibitions, hysterical advertising and dire warnings, Southeastern Europe has become the last refuge of the smoker. Immune from the whining of lobby groups and governed by leaders with greater concerns, the region has become a gold mine for multinationals facing increasing resistance in America and the European Union. Over the [...]

A few days ago, the Kosovar Albanians celebrated two years of freedom from Serb rule. Last night, the man most essential to NATO’s campaign in Kosovo addressed issues arising from America’s engagement in the Balkans, including the present crisis in Macedonia, as well as the future of American strategy and the makeup of the U.S. [...]

The ties that bind diaspora groups and interventionists are, very often, twisted and ugly. Sometimes, the two groups are one and the same, as with the fanatic American supporters of a Greater Albania, who allegedly seek to “defend the national cause and human rights of the Albanian people” – by annexing the territory of neighboring [...]

“If you blindfolded me and spun me around,” says Greg, a native of San Francisco’s foggy, desolate Outer Richmond, “I wouldn’t have a clue what avenue I was on. They all look exactly the same.” There’s no arguing the essential uniformity of the Outer Richmond, a residential neighborhood bordered by Golden Gate Park on one [...]

The southwest coast of Kerry, if one sees it on a map, is a jagged clutter of bays and peninsulas, promontories and the wreckage of cliffs sunk into the sea. Stretching beyond and forever is the cold Atlantic. The western sky also stretches wide, and in evening the sunset dissipates, seems to float, on vast [...]

When the elderly Kumanovo mother boasted about the special care her son was receiving from his new employer, one would have thought she was talking about some bonus or health care plan. Actually, she was speaking- in glowing terms- of the funeral arrangements that America’s largest military contractor, Brown & Root, had made for him. [...]

Dealing in contraband, clever theft and the intrepid traversing of borders characterize Balkan life, as we saw yesterday. However, according to a recent report on Eurasianet.org, “…illegitimate trade comprises up to four-fifths of Georgia’s economy, with many vendors and goods crossing Georgia’s border with Turkey.” That the Caucasus state should rely so heavily on rogue [...]

In the dusty Istanbul enclave of Aksaray, sweating Turks on the streets outside dubious doorways reading “Import-Export” triple-wrap boxes in cellophane. In Montenegro, cigarette-smuggling officials accept expensive speedboats from Italian mafia “business partners.” And in one house in Kumanovo, Macedonia, locals say, are made half of all the bootleg CDs owned by Kosovo’s NATO-led Kosovo [...]