On June 26 last year, having been punished by its closest Western allies for its role in fomenting tensions among minority Serbs, Kosovo’s government signed a contract with two Albanian American lobbyists to “advance bilateral relations” with Washington.

Kosovo had just been slapped with sanctions by the European Union and expelled from US-led military exercises after violence erupted in northern, majority-Serb Kosovo over the installation of ethnic Albanian mayors elected in polls that were boycotted by Serbs. NATO-led peacekeepers were injured in the clashes.

Since the Western military alliance bombed for 11 weeks to drive Serb forces from Kosovo in 1999, Pristina has long counted the US as its closest ally, and on NATO as its best protector against Serbian pretensions to take the territory back. 

So the government of Prime Minister Albin Kurti quickly went into damage-limitation mode; Foreign Minister Donika Gervalla- Schwarz signed a 147,000-euro contract with Avni Mustafaj and Aferdita Rakipi for “strategic advice, advocacy, and communication with the legislative and executive branches of the US government to advance bilateral relations between the US and the Government of Kosovo”.