I must confess that as an Albanian it is impossible for me to avoid drawing parallels between Ukraine and President Zelensky, and Kosova and President Thaçi.

Today, at this Council of Europe Summit, I cannot help but remember that the injustice towards the Kosova liberation war and its leader Hashim Thaçi started precisely at the Council of Europe, under the malign influence of Russia.

Kosova’s President, or as someone named Joe Biden referred to him, “the George Washington of Kosovo”, is now being tried by a special tribunal established and funded by the democratic world, but based on a 2011 Council of Europe report which was diabolically sponsored by representatives of Vladimir Putin in the Council of Europe Assembly.  Completely unnfounded allegations of human organ trafficking were raised then as the start of a criminal smear campaign against Kosova and Albania and when I heard lately Sergei Lavrov talking about human organ trafficking by neo-Nazis in Donbas, it seemed like I saw President Zelensky ten years later tried by a special tribunal founded on the same absurd charges!

Sorry for this brutally unconventional introduction, which I am convinced may seem to you like breaking in pieces the piano where was wonderfully played the song Ave Maria by our hosts.

However, it is extremely disheartening to know that the troubling situation involving the President of Kosova and the Kosova Liberation Army originated within the Council of Europe. I would be guilty of remaining silent if I did not speak up here today and say the following:

The Council of Europe Assembly has a moral obligation to correct any mistakes and in this case should open the way to retract the report that falsely labeled Albania as a base for the alleged organ trafficking facilitated by the Kosova Liberation Army.

Of course, today the situation has changed, Russia is no longer a member of this Council, although the number of Russians who continue to work for the Council of Europe is very impressive and thanks God the unity of the Council’s democratic community in support of the Ukrainian liberation war and President Zelensky is extraordinary.

Albania has never had illusions about the nature of the regime in Moscow and our relations with Moscow have been nonexistent since the death of Stalin – don’t ask me to explain how and why because it would take longer than our trip to Iceland.

Since the beginning of the war the popularity of Vladimir Putin in Albania has varied from 0.7% to 1.2%. Albania is very small to influence the fate of such a decisive war for the future of Europe and the world, but every little thing we have done for Ukraine has been done with great gratitude towards the Ukrainian resistance. This is also why the most beautiful thing we Albanians will take away from this summit, so well organized by our Icelandic hosts, thank you Katrin, is the conviction of everyone here, expressed so eloquently by some colleagues:

It is not President Zelensky who should thank us, but we who should thank Ukraine for what it is doing for all of us and for our dear Europe!