Russian Embassy rejects the claims as “completely unfounded” and tells Albanian officials not to “look for enemies where they do not exist.”
Tirana Times, July 04, 2026 – Albania’s government is increasingly casting the country’s month-long anti-government protests as part of a foreign-backed effort to destabilize the country, with senior ruling party figures now pointing to the Kremlin as one of the forces allegedly standing behind the unrest.
The claim marks a new escalation in the political narrative surrounding the protests, which began as a civic revolt against controversial development projects in Sazan and Zvernec but have grown into a broader movement demanding the unconditional resignation of Prime Minister Edi Rama and his government.
Taulant Balla, the head of the ruling Socialist Party’s parliamentary group and a former interior minister, told parliament that those who do not believe “foreign hands” are paying to destabilize Albania should understand that “it is not only Iran or neighboring countries” opposed to Albania’s tourism development, “but also the Kremlin.” Tourism and Culture Minister Blendi Gonxhe has also suggested that Russia is involved in amplifying the protests through digital tools and algorithms.
Russia rejects Tirana’s accusations
The Russian Embassy in Tirana issued a direct response to Balla and Gonxhe, rejecting the accusations as baseless and warning Albanian officials to be more careful in their public statements.
“The statements of Albania’s Minister of Tourism, Culture and Sports, B. Gonxhja, and those of the chairman of the Socialist Party parliamentary group, T. Balla, regarding the ‘involvement of the Kremlin’ in the protests taking place in the country are surprising,” the embassy said. “Similar claims are also being made in some media by certain journalists. These statements are completely unfounded.”
The embassy said Russia follows the principle of non-interference in the internal affairs of other states. “Russia strictly follows one of the fundamental principles of its foreign policy: the principle of non-interference in the internal affairs of other countries,” the statement said. “Moscow always respects the decision of the people and cooperates with legitimately elected governments. We wish success and prosperity to the Albanian people, regardless of the political situation and the current level of relations.”
In its most pointed passage, the embassy accused Albanian politicians of repeatedly trying to impose on the public the idea of Russia’s “malign influence.” “We note with regret that this is not the first time Albanian politicians have tried to impose on the local public the idea of Russian influence, calling it ‘malign influence,’” the embassy said. “We call for a more responsible approach to such statements and restraint from looking for enemies where they do not exist.”
The Kremlin accusation follows an earlier government narrative that placed Iran at the center of the protests. Rama has described the demonstrations as part of a “hybrid war,” linking them to antisemitic narratives, claims that Palestinians from Gaza would be relocated to Albania, and materials allegedly manipulated through artificial intelligence. He said from Tivat on June 5 that “behind the protest are the Iranians” and later told the Financial Times that Albania had “only one enemy,” referring to Iran’s theocratic regime. Officials have also suggested that Greek actors, religious extremists and anti-Israel groups may be encouraging or amplifying the unrest.
Albania has genuine reasons to treat hostile foreign activity seriously. The country cut diplomatic ties with Iran in 2022 after major cyberattacks that Tirana and its allies attributed to Tehran. But the government has not presented public evidence showing that Iran, Russia, Greece or any other foreign actor has organized or directed the current protest movement.
That lack of evidence has turned the official response into a broader political strategy: moving the crisis away from the terrain of domestic anger and onto the terrain of national security. Instead of addressing the protesters’ complaints over public assets, protected areas, opaque investment deals and political accountability, the government has increasingly framed dissent as manipulation, sabotage or foreign interference.
The tactic echoes an old Albanian political reflex. During communism, the regime routinely blamed “external enemies” and their supposed internal collaborators for public dissatisfaction and political dissent. Today’s Albania is a NATO member, an EU candidate and an open society, but the logic is familiar: when citizens protest, power looks abroad for the enemy.
The government’s accusations come as Albania’s political establishment faces one of the most serious waves of public anger in years. The protests, now entering their second month, have brought together citizens, activists and opposition groups in demonstrations that have increasingly moved beyond environmental concerns and into a direct challenge to the government’s legitimacy.
For many protesters, the central demand is no longer negotiation over a specific project but the resignation of the prime minister and the government. The movement has drawn comparisons with the anti-communist demonstrations of 1990, when public mobilization helped bring down Albania’s Stalinist regime.
Independent local and foreign analysts say the new civic awakening could mark the beginning of the end of Albania’s prolonged post-communist transition. For more than three decades, the country’s main political parties have alternated in power while preserving many features of a party-state system not in the closed conditions of the dictatorship, but in a formally open country that is now a NATO member and a candidate for European Union membership.
The comparison with 1990 is politically sensitive. Then, too, the authorities portrayed popular unrest as the work of Albania’s enemies abroad. Today, the ruling party’s references to Iran, Greece, Russia and unnamed hostile networks appear to follow a similar logic: presenting domestic anger as a threat engineered from outside rather than as the result of accumulated public frustration.
The narrative also carries risks for the government. Albania is one of the most pro-Western countries in the region, and Russian influence has little public appeal. But by invoking the Kremlin and other external enemies without offering publicly verifiable evidence, officials may deepen public distrust rather than weaken the protests.
The demonstrations have unfolded in a broader climate of anger over alleged corruption, state capture, opaque strategic investments and the concentration of political and economic power. The Sazan and Zvernec projects became symbols of what many critics describe as a development model that places public land, protected areas and national assets in the hands of politically connected investors.
The government has defended the projects as major investments that will modernize Albania’s tourism sector and strengthen the economy. But protesters argue that the issue is no longer only about tourism or development. It is about accountability, democratic control and whether citizens have any meaningful say in decisions affecting the country’s future.
By blaming foreign interference, the government appears to be seeking to shift the focus from the substance of the protesters’ demands to questions of security, loyalty and external influence. But the strategy may backfire if it is seen as an attempt to delegitimize a largely domestic civic movement.
In the end, the political question facing Albania may not be whether the Kremlin, Iran or any other external actor is behind the protests, but whether the government is willing to recognize the scale of the domestic discontent now visible in the streets. By searching for enemies outside, it risks missing the source of the crisis at home: a deep loss of public trust in governance, transparency and accountability.
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