Monitoring Influence & Disinformation Campaigns in the Western Balkans

ISD's systematic monitoring of pro-Russian and pro-Serbian disinformation networks in the Western Balkans — covering Serbia, North Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Kosovo across December 2023 to June 2024 — is the most recent comprehensive monitoring report on information operations in this critical region. The report documents coordinated amplification of pro-Kremlin narratives, the Serbian World doctrine as an information operations vehicle, and the role of ruling-party media in spreading foreign-aligned disinformation alongside genuine domestic political content.

The Western Balkans information environment is analytically distinct from Western European contexts: the overlap between state-aligned domestic political communication and Russian-amplified disinformation is deeper, the media ecosystem more fragile, and the EU accession dynamics create specific vulnerability patterns. The report's granular, country-by-country analysis makes it directly applicable for practitioners working on Balkans-specific FIMI assessment, EU enlargement resilience-building, or regional media ecosystem support. Read alongside the EXPO Western Balkans study from 2021, this report documents how the threat landscape has evolved across the intervening years.