A climate of terror and pressure has lately been unleashed against companies and businessmen owning media critical of the government. The 2K Group, one of the best known and biggest in the country, announced yesterday that it had decided to sue Finance Minister Ridvan Bode and break off any cooperation with the Berisha government.

"On 10 December, 2K Group Vice President Endri Puka declared during a television interview that, according to as yet unconfirmed information, Finance Minister Ridvan Bode had summoned the tax director to his office and, on instructions by Prime Minister Berisha, had provided him with a list of companies.

Bode asked the director to collect 60 million euros in fines from these companies or otherwise resign. One of the companies on the list was the 2K Group.

Today, on 21 December, this information has been confirmed. In the course of today alone tax officials have shown up in five companies owned by the 2K Group or Koco Kokedhima, even though tax inspections in two of them had been already completed 15 days and three months ago respectively.

Moreover, during the inspection of Remont Electric, a holding company in Elbasan, they took away the company's original document. In view of this situation, the members of the 2K Group managing board concluded at a meeting that with its actions of the past few months the Berisha government was behaving not like a government respecting the rule of law but as an illegal gang.

Therefore, the meeting decided that the company should, first, break off any kind of cooperation with the Berisha government or the institutions under the management of this government, and that, second, the company should file a criminal lawsuit against Finance Minister Ridvan Bode and all the tax administration directors who have committed such abusive, illegal, politically motivated acts," a 2K Group statement said.