Albanian Foreign Ministry

A Greek expatriate mayoral candidate in the southern Albanian municipality of Himara, Fredi Beleri, was arrested at midnight on Thursday by the Albanian police outside his business premises on suspicion of paying people for their votes, causing strong condemnation from officials in Athens.

Russia's Foreign Ministry on Friday accused Albanian media of "fuelling hype around the criminal cases opened by local prosecutors against two Russians allegedly suspected of espionage", calling the whole affair "NATO propaganda".

The Albanian government has officially expelled a Russian diplomat from the country for violating epidemiological measures imposed to counter the coronavirus pandemic, Albania's Top Channel TV reported Thursday.

Albanian Acting Foreign and European Affairs Minister Gent Cakaj said he had proposed to Pristina to launch a campaign to recognize the unilaterally declared Kosovo state through joint funding.

Athens has expressed annoyance at suggestions by the Albanian Foreign Ministry that the deaths of four Albanian nationals over the past two weeks in Greece were related to far-right extremism.

Albanian police said Kostandinos Kacifa, 35, a citizen of Albania and Greece, was shot dead by officers who were attempting to arrest him after he fired on a police patrol in the ethnic Greek-populated village of Bularat in south Albania on Sunday.

The incident happened during celebrations in the village to mark 'Oxi Day', a Greek national holiday.

Albanian and Greek officials head on Friday to Crete, Greece, for two days of planned talks on past and present disputes dogging often tetchy relations between the two Balkan countries.

The talks will be headed by the Albanian Foreign Minister Ditmir Bushati and his Greek counterpart Nikolaos Kotzias, each accompanied by a large group of experts and diplomats.

Tirana has again helped to broker a deal for ethnic Albanian parties outside the country's borders that aims to unite them in elections and maximize their power.

A Greek court has handed a 30-month suspended sentence to two Albanian civil servants who were arrested last Sunday transporting over 1,500 books containing irredentist material into Greece in a truck at the Kakavia border crossing.

Albania's Ioannina Consul, Sofokli Vasili, whose request to represent the two men was denied by the court, testified in their defense.

A diplomatic spat has erupted between Athens and Tirana over a decision by local authorities in the Albanian town of Himara to demolish the homes of 19 ethnic Greek families in the predominantly ethnic Greek seaside holiday resort.