BIRN pieces together how smugglers use their intimate knowledge of mountain roads and monitoring of police movements to move illicit cigarettes from Montenegro into Bosnia and beyond.

Under pressure from protesters, Serbia’s Aleksandar Vucic vowed last year to root out corruption. Dozens of arrests followed, but more than 18 months later, barely a handful of people have actually ...

The anti-government protests that rocked Albania this summer will not jeopardise its EU membership prospects – but will feed into a broader assessment of Tirana’s respect for democracy and that rule ...

Although almost half of all women are believed to experience some form of sexual dysfunction in the course of their lives, Montenegro's public healthcare system offers almost no relief.

After Serbia's president pardons 12 activists accused of plotting to subvert the state, one of them tells BIRN it only proves the whole case was 'fabricated from the beginning' for political purposes.

MPs unite across party lines to back statement expressing unhappiness over Hague verdict convicting four former Kosovo Liberation Army leaders and urging state institutions to take action.

Catch up on the weekend’s most important developments with Balkan Insight’s digest of news from countries across the region. Our Premium Service gives you full access to all content published on ...

Ankara Mayor Mansur Yavas’ resignation from the Republican People’s Party has worsened the embattled opposition’s plight ahead of the next elections – potentially benefitting Turkey’s authoritarian ...

Victoria Belous tells BIRN that a combination of EU funds and bold reforms will turn her post-Soviet republic into a modern European state – even if rising prices test people’s pain threshold.

With midterms approaching and polls looking bad, the US administration seems to be mulling Balkan-style election giveaways – while also giving democratic backsliders and war crimes deniers a free pass ...

The opposition Democratic Party of Socialists has now vowed to disrupt parliament’s work until there is a vote on removing speaker Andrija Mandic for sending condolences after the death of Bosnian ...