Your story about an international police operation dubbed “Balkan Warrior” focuses on Serbia and Montenegro, but smuggling of drugs, cigarettes, money, arms, people, cars, and nuclear material is rife across former Yugoslavia as a whole (“A Balkan Imbroglio,” May 8, 2010). Suffering from a massive inferiority complex on account of centuries of “slavery,” many a Slavic inhabitant of this region takes some pride in its most successful criminals. But your story also touches upon a major player in corruption and organized crime in the Balkans: Hypo Alpe Adria, an Austrian bank that operates in much of former Yugoslavia, including Slovenia and Croatia, its most developed countries. Money laundering seems to be one of the bank’s major specialties, and you briefly mention it, too. To the disappointment of many a local nationalist, much of the brainpower in wholesale smuggling also seems to come from Austria. It is thus not surprising that the bank is under investigation in many countries, including Austria itself. For better or worse, it seems to be the only survivor of the Austro-Hungarian empire that used to have a firm grip of a good hunk of the Balkans.

Addendum (January 28, 2011)

An unsuspected Balkan warrior has plucked up enough courage to remind the European Union of the origins of corruption and organized crime in the region. The president of Croatia, Ivo Josipović, has complained that the accession of his country to the Union is in question once again for reasons that should be sought elsewhere. Within the Union, too. Croatian media are trumpeting his courage today. Although he left out Hypo Alpe Adria Bank, he mentioned money laundering. The story is old, of course. How to explain the president’s timing, though? It appears that the Austrian police has stalled in its attempt to reign in the suspect bank. Chances are that politicians in high places are deeply involved. Carinthia, where the bank is headquartered, must be up to its neck in funny politics. But Josipović’s intervention is likely to fall on deaf ears. The Union does have some power when it comes to candidate countries, but it has near to none in the case of old members, like Austria. Corruption and organized crime are perfectly fine among friends, anyhow.