Albania has aligned its sanctions policy against Russia with that of the European Union, but data obtained from 17 key institutions show that the country has few, if any, concrete enforcement cases to point to over the past four years.
The probes had been declared at a modest value of 2,474 euros. According to Albania’s General Directorate of Customs, the shipment was denied entry into the country’s customs territory, while the importer chose to abandon the goods after being notified.
It is one of the rare cases in which international sanctions adopted by Albania since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 have resulted in concrete enforcement action on the ground.
Data obtained by BIRN through freedom of information requests to 17 key institutions show that, as of April 2026, Albanian authorities had identified no assets, bank accounts or property belonging to sanctioned Russian individuals or entities.
As a NATO member and a candidate for European Union membership, Albania has aligned itself with sanctions packages imposed by its Western allies against Russia following its invasion of Ukraine.Si anëtare e NATO-s dhe vend kandidat për në Bashkimin Europian, Shqipëria i është bashkuar paketave të sanksioneve të vendosura nga aleatët perëndimorë ndaj Rusisë pas pushtimit të Ukrainës.
The measures include asset freezes, travel bans and restrictions on transactions involving officials, oligarchs, companies, banks, media outlets and other entities linked to the war. The sanctions also extend to trade, banning or restricting imports of Russian oil, coal and other products, while prohibiting exports to Russia of military technology and other equipment that could bolster Moscow’s war-fighting capabilities.
According to international relations expert Ledion Krisafi, the lack of a substantial enforcement record does not diminish the political significance of Albania’s position.
“It does not matter greatly how many Russian assets Albania has frozen, or whether it has frozen any at all. What matters in this case is that Albania has been fully aligned with EU policy towards Russia,” Krisafi said, adding that the country’s limited trade, economic and financial ties with Russia left little scope for concrete sanctions enforcement.
Opposition MP Jorida Tabaku, however, questioned whether the absence of cases necessarily meant that there was no problem to uncover.
“It could mean a lack of oversight, a lack of capacity or, worse still, a lack of political will to carry out checks,” Tabaku said, pointing to institutional weaknesses and a lack of transparency.
Financial System Finds No “Trace of Russians”
Since February 24, 2022, Russia’s war against Ukraine has been regarded as Europe’s gravest security crisis since World War II, causing thousands of civilian deaths, mass displacement and widespread destruction of infrastructure. Western countries have described the aggression as a flagrant violation of Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.
In response, the European Union, the United States, the United Kingdom and other allies adopted successive packages of sanctions against Moscow. The measures were designed to curb Russia’s ability to finance the war by targeting its energy, financial, technology, defence and transport sectors, as well as freezing the assets of officials, oligarchs and companies linked to the Kremlin.
Albania joined these measures, adopting all relevant European Union Council decisions under the Common Foreign and Security Policy, CFSP, and incorporating them into its domestic legislation and enforcement mechanisms.
Following the latest updates included in government decision No. 597/2025, more than 2,500 individuals and entities are subject to sanctions linked to Russia’s aggression against Ukraine. Separate acts also impose sectoral restrictions on goods, services, banks, transport, energy and technology, in line with EU Council Decision CFSP 2014/512.
Unlike some other countries, Albania has maintained cool relations with Moscow for decades – a factor that appears to have made the task of institutions responsible for enforcing the embargo relatively easier.
Albanian financial institutions told BIRN that they operate under a heightened vigilance regime that is activated whenever the Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs circulates updates to sanctions lists. Yet, when asked about concrete results, the authorities reported no cases.
The Bank of Albania said it supervises banks and other licensed institutions for compliance with the regulatory framework, but has identified no cases and does not maintain statistics on transactions rejected or suspended as a result of sanctions lists.
“The monitoring processes established by entities licensed by the Bank of Albania are active and, to date, no accounts or assets belonging to listed Russian individuals or entities have been identified,” the central bank said in its response.
A similar picture emerges in the insurance market and the non-bank financial sector. The Financial Supervisory Authority, FSA, said that entities under its supervision had been instructed as early as 2022 to screen their portfolios for potential exposure to Russia-linked instruments. However, the FSA also confirmed that there had been no cases involving the blocking of life insurance policies, financial instruments or brokerage services.
The Financial Intelligence Agency, FIA, said it had analysed suspicious cases, but none had been found to involve sanctioned individuals, entities or goods.
According to the FIA, between 2022 and April 2026, around 25 Suspicious Activity Reports involving Russian nationals, entities or goods originating from the Russian Federation were filed. None, however, were linked to sanctioned individuals or entities.
The National Business Centre and the State Export Control Authority said they had neither registered nor received reports concerning exports, companies or permits falling under sanctions. Both institutions said they had established preventive screening mechanisms.
The State Cadastre Agency gave a similar response, saying it does not maintain statistics on real estate linked to sanctioned entities. However, it said that if such a case is identified, it notifies the Financial Intelligence Agency and suspends the registration process.
Russian Nationals Stopped at the Border
The most visible footprint of sanctions in Albania is found not in the banking or financial system, but at the country’s border crossings.
Albanian State Police told BIRN that 207 Russian nationals were denied entry to Albania between 2022 and April 2026 because of security alerts. The number of Russians refused entry has risen over the period, from 34 in 2022 to 68 in 2025.
Police also said that, during the same period, they had rejected 31 residence permit applications from Russian nationals and revoked another 15 permits that were already in force.
However, police said they could not disclose the names of those stopped or clarify whether they were linked to sanctions, citing legislation that classified such information either as a “state secret” or as personal data.
The National Authority for Classified Information Security, AKSIK, also reported cases in which security clearances had been denied or revoked for companies with business links to Russian and Serbian firms that were assessed as posing a risk to national security. The agency provided no further details, saying the information was classified.
The State Intelligence Service declined to provide information.
Apart from the seizure of the oil-monitoring probes earlier this year, the General Directorate of Customs said it had pursued a “preventive approach”.
According to the directorate, a “considerable number of potential cases” had been prevented through preliminary checks and consultations with economic operators, who were informed that procedures for the import, export or transit of certain goods “would not be permitted” because of international restrictions.
In maritime traffic, Albanian authorities also reported mainly notification and vigilance measures. The General Maritime Directorate said Albania “follows the same policy line as the European Union and its international partners”.
According to the directorate, Albanian port authorities and harbour masters have received a request from Ukraine to block 472 vessels that Kyiv says were involved in the illegal export of Ukrainian agricultural products from temporarily occupied territories.
“Port authorities report that there have been no notifications concerning the arrival of sanctioned vessels,” the General Maritime Directorate said.
The Ministry of Defence and the Civil Aviation Authority said they had encountered no cases involving breaches of sanctions.
Russian Propaganda Slips Through the Filters
Sanctions against Russia are not limited to assets, goods or travel. Some measures also target Russian state propaganda platforms, which the European Union has identified as part of Moscow’s information manipulation arsenal during the war in Ukraine.
For online content, the enforcement mechanism runs through Albania’s Electronic and Postal Communications Authority, AKEP, which has no legal mandate to assess content. However, AKEP said it cooperates with law enforcement institutions that identify websites and submit requests for access to be blocked.
AKEP’s online database of blocked domains contained 13,440 addresses as of November 2025. Most are sports betting websites and sites illegally streaming films and other copyrighted content, but the list also includes some of the main sanctioned Russian propaganda networks, including the domains “rt.com” and “sputniknews.com”.
Yet both English-language domains, as well as other networks such as Pravda, which also publishes in Albanian, have found ways around the barriers imposed by AKEP and remain accessible.
Russia Today can still be accessed directly through its RT domain, while Sputnik has switched domains and now operates under a different web address. Pravda, a network that distributes Russian propaganda through AI-generated translations, also remains accessible.
The Audiovisual Media Authority, AMA, said it had reviewed contracts submitted by audiovisual operators and found no agreements involving sanctioned Russian channels or programmes.
“No contract or agreement has been submitted to the AMA by any entity representing the rights of these channels for the territory of Albania,” the authority said in its response. According to AMA, none of the sanctioned channels or programmes appear in the lists of contracts it has reviewed.
In Line with the EU
The absence of major asset-freezing cases does not necessarily diminish the political significance of the sanctions. According to Krisafi, Albania’s record on Russia should be viewed in the context of the country’s limited economic exposure to the Russian market.
“Implementation in practice is the road that leads to the EU, not simply adopting laws on paper. But the issue must be assessed on a case-by-case basis and, in Russia’s case, given that Albania has had very limited financial, trade and economic ties, what could be done has been done so far,” the expert said.
Krisafi sees no concrete risk that Albania’s alignment will remain merely declarative, as long as the measures taken are reported to European Union institutions.
“Although some things may not be public, every measure implemented in practice is reflected in the reports and documents that Albania submits to European Union institutions,” he said, adding that otherwise there would have been a reaction from the EU.
Democratic Party MP Jorida Tabaku also acknowledged that Albania may have had limited exposure to sanctioned Russian individuals and companies. However, she said this alone was not enough to demonstrate that the measures were being effectively enforced.
Tabaku warned that the risk to Albania does not come solely from entities directly registered in Russia. Suspicious capital, she said, can be channelled through offshore companies, third-country jurisdictions, nominee shareholders and complex ownership structures, making it difficult to identify the ultimate beneficial owner.
“The low number of cases is not automatically proof of failure, but neither is it proof of success,” Tabaku said, describing Albania’s record as incomplete.
“Zero cases can be good news only when the state proves that it has searched seriously. Otherwise, zero is simply the number produced by a system designed not to see,” she concluded.
