Southeastern European countries

This was announced on the Kremlin website on Monday, January 7.

"Aleksandar Vucic awarded for his great personal contribution to the development of multilateral cooperation with the Russian Federation," a press release said.

This is a top Russian accolade, given to a Serb for the first time in nearly 100 years.

The initiative by these two opposition politicians in Montenegro is addressed at Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic, and the chairman of the Presidency of Bosnia-Herzegovina Milorad Dodik.

Prime Minister of the Republic of Moldova Pavel Filip sent a letter on Friday to Romania's Prime Minister Viorica Dancila in which he congratulated Romania for taking over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, while also voicing confidence that this is an opportunity both to advance the European agenda of the Republic of Moldova and to strengthen the bilateral cooperation

This has been assessed by Serbian Prime Minister Ana Brnabic.

Speaking for Pink TV on Friday in Belgrade, Brnabic pointed out that due to all these decisions of the provisional institutions in Pristina she "does not see any indication of a compromise" - and instead believes that Belgrade and Pristina are increasingly removed from one.

The mayor of Edirne, a province near Turkey's border with Greece and Bulgaria, has come under fire for congratulating the New Year of tourists with multilingual posters in which the city's name was written in Greek as Adrianoupolis. 

The hugely popular travel guide has listed Novi Sad in Serbia and Zadar in Croatia among its ‘top ten cities’ worth seeing in 2019.

Dimitrova said that Bulgaria is one of the countries with a serious demographic problem.

In the current year, 60,000 less children are expected to be born at the national level, which represents a new negative demographic record for Bulgaria.

In the period from January 1 to December 1, 2017, 58,000 children were born, and 53,543 in 2018.

The contentious name deal between Greece and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) is expected to be ratified in FYROM's Parliament earlier than expected, possibly by January 10, meaning that the so-called Prespes agreement will come to Greece's House early too, likely triggering political developments.

The Montenegrin government's decision on "economic citizenship" came into force on Tuesday, Montenegro-based website CdM is reporting.

An investor can get Montenegrin citizenship in several ways, including by making an EUR 100,000 payment to the account set up to finance "less developed local community unit."

"Putin's visits are mostly short and there's not much chance for a more relaxed atmosphere," the Serbian foreign minister and first deputy PM told the daily Vecernje Novosti, and added:

"By the way, he likes to sing, and my choice would be what's according to me the most beautiful Russian song, 'Podmoskovnye Vechera', and, of course, 'Kalinka'."