When Tirana Forgets Kosovo: Albania’s Misstep with Grenell

Spiropali’s embrace of Grenell, under Djuric’s silent shadow, marks Albania’s betrayal of Kosovo, dressing complicity with Belgrade’s Kremlin-fed lies in the costume of diplomacy.

On 25 September 2025, Albania’s new foreign minister, Elisa Spiropali, posted a smiling photo-op from New York: “A great meeting yesterday with President Trump’s Special Envoy for Special Missions, Richard Grenell,” she wrote¹, tagging #UNGA80 and hailing the “strengthening” of 🇦🇱–🇺🇸 ties. The image did more than advertise a diplomatic meet-and-greet. It placed Tirana, on the second anniversary of the Banjska attack in northern Kosovo, in the same warm frame as a political operative who has spent years ingratiating himself with Belgrade, attacking Prishtina, and courting nationalist forces across the region. The optics were not accidental; they were a tell.

If this were an isolated faux pas, it would be forgettable. It isn’t. Taken in sequence, Albania’s posture under Edi Rama has travelled from strategic ambiguity to something approaching strategic alignment with Belgrade, an alignment that, in 2025, is inseparable from the Kremlin’s interests in the Western Balkans. The consequenc…