Luçiq Declared “Persona Non Grata” in Kosovo, Kuçi Warns of Expansion of Serbian Influence

Acting Minister of Internal Affairs Xhelal Sveçla has announced that Vladimir Luçiq, the head of Telekom Serbia, has been declared an undesirable person in the Republic of Kosovo. Under the decision, he is permanently barred from entering, staying in or transiting through the territory of Kosovo.

The measure was taken following Luçiq’s statements that Telekom Serbia intends to expand throughout the entire territory of Kosovo, claiming that the obstacle to this is the current government in Pristina.

“We will expand throughout Kosovo, but its current government is obstructing us,” Luçiq said.

Gurakuç Kuçi, a senior researcher at the OCTOPUS Institute for Hybrid War Studies and a professor, has reacted to the statements, warning of an intensification of Serbia’s infiltration into Kosovo’s political and institutional life.

According to Kuçi, the statement by the director of Telekom Serbia is a clear indication of what he describes as part of Belgrade’s hybrid war against Kosovo.

“Serbia’s infiltration into Kosovo’s political and institutional life is expected to increase. This activity, as part of the hybrid war, was clearly expressed by Telekom Serbia Director Vladimir Luçiq. In an interview with Serbian media, after returning from the United States, he said that the company’s expansion throughout Kosovo would take place after the current government is overthrown. Their openly stated objective is for Telekom Serbia to become the leading telephone operator in Kosovo and to include Albanian customers as well,” Kuçi said.

He recalled that a year earlier he had warned about Telekom Serbia’s role as a state structure that could be used to control, manipulate, intimidate and interfere in the institutions of Kosovo and the region.

“This is no longer merely an analysis. The director of Telekom Serbia himself is publicly expressing the intention to expand throughout Kosovo and is linking the implementation of this plan to political changes in Pristina,” he said.

Kuçi links Telekom Serbia’s regional expansion to a broader strategy by Belgrade, which he sees as part of the “Serbian World” project.

“Through telecommunications, the aim is to establish control and expand into areas where Serbia already has a presence or seeks to create one. This is an inseparable part of the expansion of the ‘Serbian World,’” Kuçi said.

He also mentioned the company’s activities in Montenegro, where Telekom Serbia entered immediately after the country’s independence in 2007. Currently, through MTEL Podgorica, it directly owns 51 percent of the shares, while 49 percent are owned by MTEL Banja Luka, which is also controlled by Telekom Serbia.

In Bosnia and Herzegovina, the company controls around 65 percent of Telekom Srpske/MTEL Banja Luka. Meanwhile, in North Macedonia, Telekom Serbia obtained a license in July 2021 through MTEL, initially offering television services and later, in 2022, expanding into mobile telephony.

According to Kuçi, even the cases in which the company’s plans were not carried out demonstrate the same expansionist orientation. In 2018, its offer of around 60 million euros to purchase Telekom Albania was blocked by the Albanian government because of concerns related to national security. In Kosovo, its 155-million-euro offer to purchase IPKO also failed in 2020.

Within Kosovo, Telekom Serbia has expanded through MTS d.o.o., a company that is wholly owned by it. This structure has purchased cable operators, including VGN Net and HERC International, strengthening its presence in areas with a Serb majority.

Kuçi also mentioned the 652-million-euro agreement with United Group to purchase NetTV Plus, the EON Sat/Total TV satellite business in Serbia and North Macedonia, as well as several Sport Klub assets in the region. According to him, the transaction further strengthened Telekom Serbia’s position in the regional market.

Telekom Serbia, Kuçi added, has presented this development as part of a plan to become the leading company in the Western Balkans, with the objective of reaching 3 billion euros in revenue by 2030.

At the same time, the company has expanded into Germany, Austria and Switzerland, initially targeting the diaspora and later seeking to use it as a base for broader penetration.

In the final part of his response, Kuçi accused Telekom Serbia and MTS d.o.o. of activities contrary to Kosovo’s agreements and institutions.

“This company directly violated the 2015 Brussels Agreement by illegally expanding its network, employing people without Kosovo documents and sabotaging security institutions,” he said.

Kuçi claimed that MTS d.o.o. had been used as an instrument of Serbian intelligence, saying that evidence related to the murder of Oliver Ivanović had been deleted from its databases, information about the terrorist attack in Banjska had been concealed, and traces of another terrorist attack against the Ibër-Lepenc canal had been covered up.

“The subversive nature of this structure was reconfirmed in 2025, when the bomb threat against the Kosovo Assembly was made from an MTS number. Also, in March 2025, BIRN Serbia journalists were attacked with Pegasus spyware through MTS numbers, while BIA and the Serbian police used Cellebrite devices to install NoviSpy on the phones of detained journalists,” he said.

According to Kuçi, another troubling development is Telekom Serbia’s effort to present itself as a “Western investor.” He assessed that Luçiq had created a diplomatic shield through talks in Washington concerning the 5G network, artificial intelligence and financing from Exim Bank.

“The aim is to implement the ‘Serbian World’ by using American support to advance Serbia’s interests. Any ban or regulatory measure that Pristina might take against this strategy is immediately presented by Belgrade as an obstacle to American investment and as an attempt to damage relations between Kosovo and the United States,” Kuçi said.

He described Telekom Serbia as a digital “Trojan Horse” for implementing the “Serbian World” project in the Western Balkans.

“To implement this project in Kosovo, as Luçiq himself has said, coordinated political steps are needed to enable infiltration into Kosovo’s political and institutional life,” Kuçi concluded in comments to “Bota sot.”

According to him, in the digital age every investment must also be assessed from a security perspective, which serves as a lesson for responding to hybrid warfare.