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Berisha tried to challenge US sanctions as persona non grata for grand corruption, obstruction of justice, and undermining democracy – and succeeded.
Sali Berisha is trying to present his election defeat as a victim of the US “non grata” declaration, even though he has been politically denigrating it. For almost four years he has waged an exemplary anti-American battle, bringing to the surface for the first time in Albanian society a hidden anti-Americanism, which has become almost a kind of ideology of Berisha’s group in the DP over the past four years.
Thanks to this anti-American spirit, Berisha himself began to look for Russian alliances in the region and within the US. This is why a year ago he ended up in the hands of the Kremlin's most important man in the US, Paul Manafort, who was sentenced to 7 and a half years in the US for Russian connections and illegal Russian influence in Donald Trump's 2016 campaign, and other corrupt acts.
Berisha tried to challenge the US sanctioning as persona non grata for major corruption, obstruction of justice and undermining democracy – and he succeeded. At least he convinced the Democratic Party that between a new leader like Lulzim Basha, supported by the US, and Sali Berisha, sanctioned by the US, they should choose Berisha. So, the DP made a conscious choice against the US in its internal battle.
Now that his Russian connections in the US have been offered to him for an electoral campaign, in exchange for large payments, Berisha is trying to consider the "non grata" declaration a penalty, as according to him it prevents him from going to the US.
If the only problem with "non grata" is traveling to the US, Berisha has the same problem with Great Britain. He doesn't go there either, since he is "non grata" there for links to organized crime and its use in politics. There are even more DP fans in England than in the US.
The issue of his sanctions by the US and Great Britain is a political issue, not a visa issue. And Berisha has won that battle within the DP against the US. Now the US, whether it wants to keep that sanction, or lift it, can't ruin anyone's business and can't fix Berisha's business.
If Berisha has a visa issue, let them give him a visa to go to the US and relieve him of his worries before he dies, but he has already said that I am old and cannot travel.
The "non grata" issue is a political issue, it is his political battle with the US, and he has won that battle within his party, turning it into a phalanx of anti-American Taliban.
The purpose of that sanction was precisely to distance the DP from him. The DP did not distance itself from him, but it distanced itself from the US. Now everything else is meaningless. In relation to the "non grata", it is a losing battle for the US, which should now take more care to maintain its authority in Albania, than to complain about Berisha.
Sali Berisha will lose these elections and others if he remains in politics, even if he does not have the "non grata" status.
He is "non grata" by Albanians and this does not change with lek, nor with his family's millions stolen by Albanians, nor with soldiers paid by the Kremlin dressed as Americans.
This is clear. He has won his political battle with the US within the DP. His "non grata" no longer bothers him or his opponents. In fact, it is more important for them to remove the "non grata" than to go to the elections with him, since they are happier to defeat him, as they have always been able to, without being "non grata" by the US.
This pretense that it will lose because it is "non grata" is simply a rush to find another anti-American alibi for the defeat.
He loses just as deeply even if they remove his "non grata" today, since those who vote for him have voted against the "non grata" within the party, and those who vote against him have done so even before the "non grata".
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