“Wars of the West” Propaganda: NATO will attack Russia through Albania and Kosovo

By Alteo Hysi

In its latest report on monitoring Russian propaganda, the Special Task Force Against Russian Disinformation, part of the EU diplomatic service, notes that wars, especially those attributed to others, remain a prominent feature of the Kremlin’s attempts to paint the world in its colours.

The notion of the “West,” according to the experts of “Eu VS DisInfo,” is now stabilized in the Kremlin’s identity and worldview.

“In the Kremlin’s projection, the West has become synonymous for everyone opposing the policies of Moscow”.

A few days after this analysis, the “war of the West” reappears through the propaganda machinery that builds the Russian worldview, this time targeting Albania and Kosovo. Recently, the media “Sputnik Serbia”, one of the main channels of Russian propaganda and influence in the region, wrote that NATO has been working for 10 years on the idea of an attack on Russia, using Albania and Kosovo as an auxiliary corridor.

Ljubomir Gjurkovic, who, according to Sputnik, served as a defense commander in Koshare “during the NATO aggression against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia,” says that “the goal of the NATO pact is clear – to deactivate Russia as a superpower and attack its energy resources, which are especially abundant in the Siberian basin.”

“Our interlocutor explains that the so-called Balkan corridor would start from Albania, from the port of Durres, where the Americans have created and are expanding the naval base,” Sputnik writes.

“Normally, the land connection is made through ‘Prishtina-Durrës’ in order to facilitate the transport of troops and equipment that would be used for the final confrontation, that is, for the attack on Russia. Another direction that is possible, and which I am afraid will materialize, is the naval base of the port of Tivar, which would be connected to the highway leading to Belgrade,” emphasizes Gjurkovic.

According to him, everything that has happened in Albania and Kosovo in recent years is being done for the realization of this plan.

“The Balkan countries will provide corridors for the transportation of logistical equipment, weapons and soldiers, as well as for the mobilization of up to 150,000 people from the Balkan region – from Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Greece, Albania, the so-called Kosovo and Bulgaria”, Gjurković believes.

According to Gjurković, preparations in Albania are part of this plan, where two bases have already been largely renovated: one in the port of Durrës and the other, the Kuçova air base, which Albania has offered to NATO.

Sputnik’s propaganda was prompted by the misinterpretation of an article in London’s The Telegraph, according to which NATO is preparing several land corridors for sending American troops to the front in the event of a major European war with Russia.

In fact, The Telegraph wrote about the possible corridors that American troops could use as a logistical route in the event of a possible attack from Russia. At no point does The Telegraph claim or imply a NATO plan to attack Russia through the Balkan corridor.

So, once again, Russian propaganda is trying to build the narrative of NATO as an aggressor, the Euro-Atlantic alliance as a threat to Russian society, while portraying Albania and Kosovo as the possible “tools” of such a threat. Such a narrative is not new to the Kremlin mentality.

In 2018, NATO’s Center for Strategic Communications published a report examining Russia’s means of influence in the Western Balkans. The project identified a total of nine narratives promoted by the Kremlin in the region through articles in Sputnik Srbija, the Serbian branch of the Russian state news agency Sputnik.

Among them, the dominant narratives were that “NATO is aggressive and provocative” while “NATO countries like Albania are weak, incompetent and corrupt”. The report shows that Albania is used by Russian propaganda as an example of how the West uses the region to advance its own interests.

The monitoring of Sputnik Srbija’s content identified more than 300 articles related to Albania, of which the narrative that “the European Union is hegemonic in the region” remained among the most popular. Sputnik portrayed Kosovo as the main source of instability in the Balkans.

Thus, the same fable repeats itself again, and it probably won’t be the last time. The “danger and war coming from NATO” will remain part of the Kremlin’s disinformation as a tool of war for a long time to come.

The truth is that NATO, as Alliance officials have repeatedly stated, does not seek confrontation and poses no threat to Russia. Although Russia poses serious threats and provocations to the security of allied countries, the Alliance reaffirms that it “will continue to respond to Russian threats in a responsible manner”.

In essence, NATO is not an aggressive alliance, but a defensive alliance to keep member countries safe by working to prevent and protect against Russia’s actions, including disinformation and information manipulation, which, as the head of EU diplomacy, Josep Borell, would say, is now a matter of European security