Defence Minister: Albania Targeted by Russia, Iran

Defence Minister Pirro Ving during his report to the Commission for Disinformation said Albania is threatened by Russian and Iranian false news.

“This manipulation of information from foreign states that include dezination and propaganda is an international threat to security that could create divisions within and between countries, jeopardise the integrity of the elections and undermine public confidence in the government”, Vangu said, A2 CNN.

Our country is the target of malicious dezination and propaganda. It brings to attention here another example, the moment in April 2024, the Defence Ministry founded the security and defence innovation centre, we saw that officially and both through media channels the Russian Narrativa was revived even through Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova, where she said where the investment of the Foreign Ministry NATO is deliberately labelled as a source of hybrid threats in the Balkans and practically accused Albania of having an offensive strategy for hybrid threats in the Balkans”.

Bringing concrete examples of the intervention of foreign states in Albania, Ving said the strategies to be used against them are non-concilative and discrediting. Also, in the month of January 2020, Iran's leader, Ajothollah Khomeni, referred to Albania as a small and diabolic European country, an element of America with several Iranian mercenaries who have sold their homeland”, Veng said.

Despite the reasons and tempistics of these statements, it is true that often from these countries, Russia and Iran, we have been targeted and those statements, which start officially. There are many states that have decided to ignore the third-party attempt to disinform. Ignore it, mainly supporting the right to free speech. But we are now in the conditions where artificial intelligence intervention is required for filtering and discrediting disinformive elements. In our judgment as minister of defence we should try to combine the two”.