TIRANA — Mounting investigations suggest that Albania, a NATO member state once praised for its steadfast alignment with Western sanctions, may have become an unexpected conduit for Russian and Iranian interests seeking to bypass international restrictions.
Evidence from multiple sources points to a troubling mix of negligence, smuggling and possible corruption within Prime Minister Edi Rama’s government — conditions that appear to have allowed sanctioned commercial flows to infiltrate the country’s critical infrastructure.
A recent investigation by RBC Ukraine uncovered how banned Russian fuel products may be entering Europe through Albanian ports. The report detailed deceptive cargo declarations, including two vessels that docked at Porto Romano near Durrës under the guise of transporting cement but were instead carrying hundreds of thousands of litres of undeclared diesel. According to Balkan Insight, the operation allegedly relies on networks stretching from Russia to Libya, using intermediaries and offshore shell companies to disguise the fuel’s origin.
Around the same period, a Hashtag.al investigation raised alarms about a Swiss-based company entering Albania’s infrastructure market through Algeria. The firm’s ultimate owners — Turkish-Iranian nationals previously sanctioned by the U.S. — are said to have ties to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps, suggesting a broader pattern of sanctioned entities exploiting Albania’s regulatory gaps.
Concerns have also surfaced over Vlora International Airport, a flagship infrastructure project designed to modernize the country’s tourism and transport sectors. Reporting by Vox News Albania links the airport’s operating company to an offshore entity named Compartment Bernina, registered in Luxembourg under securitisation law and allegedly connected to figures with Russian-state affiliations. The structure, according to those reports, could allow key assets to slip beyond Albanian legal jurisdiction upon liquidation — effectively placing a national project outside the reach of government oversight.
The opacity surrounding these deals has renewed questions about Albania’s role within the Western sanctions framework. Analysts at The GPC warn that while Albania’s NATO membership has been central to its geopolitical identity, weak governance and fragmented oversight have opened strategic sectors — from ports to energy — to foreign exploitation.
Whether driven by corruption, incompetence or deliberate complicity, the pattern is now clear: Albania has become a weak link in Europe’s sanctions regime. Unless transparency and accountability are urgently restored, the breach could widen — turning a small Balkan nation into one of the most dangerous loopholes in the West’s economic wall against Russia and Iran.
