Acting Interior Minister Xhelal Sveçla has announced that Vladimir Luçiq, director of Telekom Serbia, has been declared an undesirable person in the Republic of Kosovo. The decision entails a permanent ban on his entry into, stay in and transit through the territory of Kosovo.
Të lidhura
None found
The measure was taken after Luçiq stated that Telekom Serbia intended to expand throughout Kosovo, claiming that the realization of this objective was being obstructed by the country’s current government.
“We will expand throughout Kosovo, but its current government is obstructing us,” Luçiq said.
The statement prompted a response from Gurakuç Kuçi, a senior researcher at the OCTOPUS Institute for Hybrid War Studies, as well as a professor and doctor. He expressed concern that Serbia could increase its infiltration into Kosovo’s political and institutional life.
Kuçi assessed that the statements by the director of Telekom Serbia constituted direct evidence of what he described as part of Serbia’s hybrid war against Kosovo.
“An increase in Serbia’s infiltration into Kosovo’s political and institutional life is expected. This activity, as part of the hybrid war, has been stated clearly by Telekom Serbia Director Vladimir Luçiq, who, in an interview with Serbian media after returning from the United States, declared that their expansion throughout Kosovo would be realized once the current government was overthrown. Their openly stated goal is to become the main telecommunications provider in Kosovo, also acquiring Albanian customers,” Kuçi said.
He recalled that exactly one year earlier, he had warned that Telekom Serbia was a state structure used for control, manipulation, intimidation and interference in the institutions of Kosovo and the region.
“Exactly one year ago, on this date, I warned that Telekom Serbia was a state structure used for control, manipulation, intimidation and deep interference in the institutional life of Kosovo and the region. Today, this is no longer merely an analytical assessment. The director of Telekom Serbia himself is publicly declaring the intention to expand throughout Kosovo, linking the realization of this expansion to political changes in Pristina,” he said.
According to Kuçi, Telekom Serbia’s expansion into the countries of the region is linked to a broader strategy by Belgrade, which he places within the framework of the “Serbian World” project.
“This strategy is an inseparable part of the expansion of the ‘Serbian World,’ through which the telecommunications sector is being used to seize control of the region where Serbia already has, or seeks to establish, a presence.
In Montenegro, Telekom Serbia entered immediately after independence, in 2007, and today directly owns 51 percent of the shares through MTEL Podgorica, while the remaining 49 percent is held by MTEL Banja Luka, a company also controlled by Telekom Serbia.
In Bosnia and Herzegovina, it controls around 65 percent of Telekom Srpske/MTEL Banja Luka, while in North Macedonia it obtained a license in July 2021 through MTEL, initially offering television services before expanding into mobile telephony in 2022.
Even the failed attempts point to the same expansionist agenda: in 2018, its offer of approximately 60 million euros to purchase Telekom Albania was blocked by the Albanian government because of national security concerns, while in Kosovo, its 155 million-euro offer to purchase IPKO in 2020 failed to materialize.
Within Kosovo, cable operators such as VGN Net and HERC International have been purchased through MTS d.o.o., which is 100 percent owned by Telekom Serbia, consolidating its presence in areas with a Serb majority.
At the broader regional level, this hegemony was reinforced through the 652 million-euro agreement under which United Group sold NetTV Plus, the EON Sat/Total TV satellite business in Serbia and North Macedonia, as well as several Sport Klub assets in the region.
Telekom Serbia itself has described this as part of its strategy to become the leading company in the Western Balkans, with the goal of generating 3 billion euros in revenue by 2030. In parallel, the same structure has expanded into Germany, Austria and Switzerland, initially targeting the diaspora and later using it as a base for broader penetration,” Kuçi added.
Continuing his statement, Kuçi leveled serious accusations against the activities of Telekom Serbia and MTS d.o.o. in Kosovo. According to him, these structures have operated in violation of Kosovo’s agreements and institutions.
“This company has directly violated the 2015 Brussels Agreement in Kosovo by illegally expanding its network, employing personnel without Kosovo documents and sabotaging security institutions. MTS d.o.o. has operated as an instrument of Serbian intelligence: it deleted from its databases all evidence related to the murder of Oliver Ivanović, concealed all data on the terrorist attack in Banjska and helped hide the traces of the other terrorist attack on the Ibër-Lepenc canal.
Its subversive nature was reconfirmed in 2025, when the bomb threat against the Assembly of Kosovo came from an MTS number. Also, in March 2025, BIRN Serbia journalists were targeted with Pegasus spyware through MTS numbers, while BIA and the Serbian police used Cellebrite devices to install NoviSpy on the phones of detained journalists.
The most dangerous mutation of Telekom Serbia is its presentation as a ‘Western investor.’ Luçiq has built a sophisticated diplomatic shield through talks in Washington on the 5G network, artificial intelligence and financing from Exim Bank. The aim is to realize the ‘Serbian World’ by exploiting the American shield to advance Serbia’s interests. Any ban or regulatory measure that Pristina might impose against this strategy is immediately framed by Belgrade as an obstruction of American investment and an attempt to create divisions between Kosovo and the United States.
Therefore, Telekom Serbia is a digital ‘Trojan horse’ for realizing the ‘Serbian World’ in the Western Balkans. To carry out this project in Kosovo, as Luçiq himself says, they need coordinated political steps to infiltrate Kosovo’s political and institutional life.
In the digital age, every type of investment must be viewed through a security framework, and this serves as a lesson in responding to hybrid warfare,” Kuçi concluded in comments to “Bota Sot.”
