Russian-Style Psy-Ops Are Targeting Kosovo
Ilir Mirena and Valon Syla are not reporting the truth. They are deploying Russian-style psychological warfare to fracture Kosovo’s society and undermine its sovereignty.
On a Saturday morning in Ukraine, as I awoke following a second night of relentless Russian bombardment, I came across a short but chilling video segment from Kosovo1. In it, Ilir Mirena, editor-in-chief of the Kosovar outlet Periskopi, was seen making an astonishing claim:
“From Shaban Polluzha to Azem Galica, to today, to the KLA, they provoked Serbia into losing control and committing massacres, so that NATO would intervene.” — Ilir Mirena.
His words were met with tacit approval from Valon Syla, a figure who styles himself a journalist but whose credibility is undermined by his consistent parroting of narratives long rooted in Serbian propaganda.
Such a statement is not merely an exercise in historical revisionism, it is an egregious distortion designed to absolve Serbia of responsibility for its genocidal campaigns in Kosovo, Bosnia, and Croatia. To suggest that the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) provoked atrocities is to echo the precise propaganda once broadcast by Slobodan Milosevic’s regime, the same regime that committed unspeakable crimes in pursuit of an ethnically homogenous “Greater Serbia”.
Mirena’s name has surfaced in damning reports by Bosnian outlet Slobodna Bosna2, which allege connections between his media platform and funding networks tied to Serbia’s President Aleksandar Vucic3, formerly Milosevic’s propaganda minister4. While Slobodna Bosna’s report may lack direct forensic evidence, the circumstantial alignment between these allegations and the content routinely pushed by Mirena and his ilk is undeniable. Their messaging consistently mirrors Belgrade’s strategy: to delegitimise Kosovo’s statehood, revise its history, and sow division.
Consider the recent events of 31 May5: On that day, Ilir Mirena initiated a grotesque campaign targeting Saranda Bogujevci, Deputy Speaker of Kosovo’s Parliament and a survivor of one of the war’s most infamous massacres. Mirena shared a cropped photograph of Kosovo’s Prime Minister Albin Kurti attending a private commemoration for the Bogujevci family massacre. Stripped of context, he appended a cynical caption mocking government expenses, a trivialisation of a solemn occasion of remembrance.
This was not an isolated act of poor taste. It was the opening salvo in a coordinated smear campaign, soon joined by figures such as Lirim Mehmetaj, Berat Buzhala, and Milaim Zeka, a cohort of media personalities whose conduct consistently violates the basic tenets of journalism. Mehmetaj’s subsequent post was a particularly vile example, laced with misogyny and wild conspiracies, accusing Bogujevci of exploiting her family’s tragedy and undermining the state, an obscene inversion of the truth.
This campaign seeks not simply to tarnish one survivor, but to corrode public trust in Kosovo’s institutions and to distort the moral clarity upon which the Republic of Kosovo is founded. It is no coincidence that many of these actors are linked to media platforms with alleged ties to Belgrade’s strategic interests. Their broader objective is clear: to paint Kosovo as an ungovernable, internally fractured, failed state, thereby advancing Serbia’s long-standing campaign of delegitimisation.
Such conduct should alarm every citizen of Kosovo, indeed, of any democracy. In Britain, we acted swiftly in February 2022, shutting down Sputnik and Russia Today the moment Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The European Union followed suit.
The rationale was simple: hostile foreign propaganda has no place in a free society, particularly when it seeks to undermine democratic sovereignty.
So why, then, are the likes of Ilir Mirena, Valon Syla, and their accomplices still granted platforms on Kosovar screens? Why is there no public outcry demanding accountability for those who vandalise the truth, masquerading as journalists while serving hostile interests?
Kosovo’s citizens must ask themselves this urgently. This is not a matter of political disagreement, it is a matter of national security and moral integrity. The victims of Serbia’s war in Kosovo, those massacred, raped, and forcibly displaced, cry out against this desecration of truth. When these propagandists distort history, they are stepping over the blood of the victims. They are pissing, quite brutally, upon the memory of the dead.
Yet the Kosovo Journalists Association - AJK, the very body charged with upholding journalistic standards, remains silent. Such complicity through omission is a profound moral failure. In any mature European democracy, silence in the face of such obscenity would be unconscionable.
The line must be drawn. Kosovo’s civil society, genuine journalists, and state institutions must act with resolve. The sources of funding behind these malign platforms must be investigated. If substantiated, these outlets must be shut down. Journalistic associations must enforce strict ethical codes. And the public must rise, not in apathy but in defence of truth.
The Republic of Kosovo was born of extraordinary courage and sacrifice. It cannot, and must not, allow its public discourse to be hijacked by those who seek its erasure.
The choice now lies with the people. Will you stand silent as looters of truth parade as journalists, or will you defend the memory of the fallen and the dignity of your republic?
This Is Not Free Speech. It Is Psychological Warfare
The statements and narratives now being pushed by Ilir Mirena, Valon Syla and their associates mirror the well-documented tactics of Russian psychological warfare. This is a strategy designed not to win public debate, but to confuse, demoralise and erode trust in national institutions. At its core, Russian-style psychological operations, or psy-ops, seek to flood the information space with distortions, false equivalencies and revisionist history. The aim is to create an environment in which the very concept of truth becomes relative.
This is precisely what we are now seeing in Kosovo. By inverting responsibility for Serbia’s genocidal campaign, by portraying Kosovo’s government as the aggressor, and by undermining the moral standing of genocide survivors, these actors are engaging in cognitive sabotage. Their objective is to destabilise public confidence, fracture social cohesion and weaken Kosovo’s capacity to defend its sovereignty, all while promoting narratives that align with the interests of Belgrade and its Kremlin-aligned partners. This is not journalism. It is information warfare. And it must be recognised and addressed as such.
Igor Yakovenko, a former Russian intelligence analyst and defector, has explained:
“The purpose of such psychological operations is not merely to spread lies, but to corrode the very idea that truth exists, to make populations so cynical, so confused, that they can no longer distinguish fact from fiction, and thus become politically paralysed.”
This is the precise playbook now entering Kosovo’s media discourse.
Anne Applebaum, Pulitzer Prize-winning historian and journalist, has written extensively about this phenomenon in The Atlantic, describing it as “strategic cynicism, a method of disinformation whose ultimate aim is not to persuade you of a falsehood, but to exhaust your ability to trust anything.” Mirena and Syla’s revisionist narratives operate in exactly this way. These are not genuine critiques. They are calculated assaults on Kosovo’s collective memory and civic will, textbook examples of modern propaganda at work.
The danger is made even greater by the deafening silence of Kosovo’s own government and institutional watchdogs. So far, they have tolerated the presence of these propaganda actors in the media space. The late Vaclav Havel, Czech dissident and human rights champion, once warned:
“The moment we begin to tolerate the lie, we ourselves become complicit in the mechanisms of oppression.”
Kenneth Roth, former executive director of Human Rights Watch, recently stated during a global disinformation panel in London:
“When states fail to confront deliberate falsehoods, they leave their societies defenceless against the corrosive effects of propaganda, and the burden of defence falls on citizens.”
In Kosovo, this is now the reality: Civil society, independent media and ordinary citizens must raise their voices. If the government will not act to protect the integrity of public discourse, then the public must. Silence will only allow this poison to spread. And to remain silent is to dishonour the memory of those who fought and died for Kosovo’s freedom.
A Smear Campaign Against Memory and Justice
In late May, a grotesque spectacle unfolded on Kosovo’s social media channels, one that has since reverberated far beyond the digital sphere and exposed, in full light, a systematic effort to undermine not only the moral fabric of the young republic, but its very claim to sovereignty and truth.
MOMENTE TENSIONI - GJYNAH – U BONET HORË/ Përplasen Mirena – Avdiu - Hoxha, i ndërpret Valon Syla — YouTube T7 Channel.
EKSKLUZIVNO / NAJVEĆA TAJNA VUČIĆEVE (SR)BIA-e (I): Šta je predsjednik Srbije zatajio Scholzu i zašto se Dodik nije mogao suzdržati…
Vučićev plamičak nažalost tinja, a ta vatrica može da ubrzo postane vatrena stihija koja će progutati mnogo života. — Slobodna Bosna.
In Vucic's Shadow: Media Manipulation in Kosovo
New revelations expose Berat Buzhala's media outlets receiving Serbian funding, raising serious concerns about his role in manipulating Kosovo's political landscape for foreign interests. — The GPC.
Unmasking Serbia’s President Aleksandar Vucic
In this episode, The Exposé uncovers Aleksandar Vucic’s dangerous alliances with Russia, China and Iran, revealing Serbia’s destabilising role in Europe. Subscribe for deeper insights. — THE GPC Exposé.