Don Jr. and Trump’s former Balkan envoy, Ric Grenell, seem to have decided to back Kosovo’s opposition ahead of Sunday’s elections. While it’s no surprise given Grenell’s fixation on PM Albin Kurti, it’s still cause for concern. A 🧵 on the background of all this: - ThreadSky

unawrites.bsky.social • 25 days ago

Don Jr. and Trump’s former Balkan envoy, Ric Grenell, seem to have decided to back Kosovo’s opposition ahead of Sunday’s elections. While it’s no surprise given Grenell’s fixation on PM Albin Kurti, it’s still cause for concern.

A 🧵 on the background of all this:

1 / 2

Comments

darkokrznaric.bsky.social•25 days ago

not surprised he dislikes Albin...these middle-aged, mediocre no personality losers get intimidated and feel inferior when they meet intelligent persons.

thinkingrealhard.bsky.social•25 days ago

Ric Grenell: Nazi is as Nazi does.

unawrites.bsky.social•25 days ago

The latest (or rather, most important) thread tying the Kosovo opposition to Trump and Grenell is the fact that the founder of PDK, former Kosovo president and PM Hashim Thaci, and Donald Trump were both indicted by Jack Smith. Smith was the first prosecutor to serve as part of a special tribunal…

unawrites.bsky.social•25 days ago

… which would investigate and prosecute war crimes committed during the 1998-1999 conflict in Kosovo. Smith’s indictment was a big deal because Thaci resigned as president at the time and has been in detention since then. My story from 2020 has more background on it: https://www.politico.eu/article/hashim-thaci-quits-as-kosovo-president-over-war-crimes-indictment

unawrites.bsky.social•25 days ago

Smith stepped down from the position of Chief Prosecutor for the Kosovo Specialist Chambers in 2022 and was then immediately appointed Special Counsel in the criminal investigations into Trump’s conduct on January 6 and into his illegal handling of classified documents.

unawrites.bsky.social•25 days ago

Before Thaci resigned, he was at the center of a constitutional crisis in early 2020 after Grenell had basically coerced the junior coalition member in Kurti’s first, short-lived government to launch a no-confidence vote against Kurti (right as the world was grappling with COVID shutdowns)

unawrites.bsky.social•25 days ago

In what was seen as a violation of the right of Kurti’s party, that had won elections, to reshuffle the government coalition or launch new elections after a no-confidence vote, Thaci as president granted the 2nd placed LDK the mandate to form a new gov’t https://verfassungsblog.de/a-motion-of-no-confidence-and-political-power-struggles-amidst-a-pandemic/

unawrites.bsky.social•25 days ago

How does this tie back to Trump? Well Grenell and Thaci wanted the US president to deliver a sped up “peace agreement” between Kosovo and Serbia, part of the administration’s effort to prove its diplomatic credentials (this happened at around the time the Abraham Accords were also being negotiated).

zuma888.bsky.social•25 days ago

The only friends he has in the region are Serbian right wing nationalists.
He is no conciliator.

alexsaysstuff.bsky.social•25 days ago

Eh, they're not his friends, they just (correctly) think he's an easy mark.

Comments

Posting Rules

Reply