The Balkans Today:
How Russia, Turkey, Extremism, And Social, Economic and Political Fragility Continue To Shape The Western Balkans
RFE/RL invites you to a conversation with
Arbana Vidishiqi,
RFE/RL Balkan Service Director
Wednesday, June 13, 9:30 am - 10:30 am EST / 3:30 pm - 4:30 pm CET
RFE/RL - Washington
1201 Connecticut Ave NW, 4th Floor
In addition to the poisonous legacies of war and inter-ethnic bitterness, Serbia, Bosnia, Montenegro, Macedonia, and Kosovo also share the burdens of social and economic dislocations, corruption, and fragile institutions of democracy. Russia, Turkey, and the European Union are all competing for influence in the western Balkans, where Islamist extremism also seeks to build its presence.
RFE/RL Balkan Service Director Arbana Vidishiqi will share her insights into these issues and their impact on the countries of the Western Balkan region.
Vidishiqi is the director of RFE/RL’s Balkan Service and head of the Kosovo Unit. She joined RFE/RL in 1999 as a Pristina-based political affairs correspondent. After being appointed Pristina bureau chief in September 2001, she led the ethnically diverse bureau during the volatile inter-ethnic tensions that followed the 1999 war in Kosovo. In June 2011, Vidishiqi was appointed head of the Kosovo unit; in 2016, she moved to Prague to take on the duties of Balkan Service director. A 1994 graduate of Hendon College, London with a degree in communications and technology, Vidishiqi is a native Albanian speaker and is fluent in English and south Slavic languages.