The Balkan Kettle: Russia's policy toward the Balkans

Bogusław Jagiełło

doi:10.35467/sdq/138674

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to identify the policy orientations of Russia in the Balkans. The historical aspects of Russia's political and cultural ties with the Balkan region, Russia's policy toward the Balkans during the USSR period will be highlighted. As the Balkans are an important factor in Russia's geopolitical game to retain influence in Europe, the author analyses Russia's contemporary policy in the Balkans, its interests and the measures taken to achieve its specific goals. It can be concluded that Russian involvement in some Balkan countries is exhausting the elements of the hybrid war. Two possible models of geopolitical behavior in relation to Russia could be distinguished. The first is to continue trying to stay as far away from Russia, the second is to build effective mechanisms for socio-economic cooperation. It can be implied that Russia will not hesitate to repeat the hybrid war scenario from Ukraine in order to maintain its political influence in the region. Only the return of the EU to a consistent policy of enlargement to Balkan countries and the economic strengthening of the Member States from the Balkan region can weaken Russia's political influence in the region.

Highlights

The purpose of the article is to identify the policy directions of Russia towards the Balkans, which can be identified as the Western Balkans, the Balkan Peninsula, the Western Balkans Six – Western Balkan 6 Initiative (WB6), and South-Eastern Europe
It is a region in which NATO and the EU compete for influence alongside Russia and China
The Balkans is a strategically important region for Moscow for two fundamental reasons: Firstly, it is an area of competition with other regional actors such as the European Union, NATO, the USA, and secondly, there are paths to supply energy raw materials to Europe

Summary

Introduction

The purpose of the article is to identify the policy directions of Russia towards the Balkans, which can be identified as the Western Balkans, the Balkan Peninsula, the Western Balkans Six – WB6, and South-Eastern Europe. Russia, based on historical traditions, energy, Slavic culture and the Orthodox Church, is trying to hinder the integration efforts of individual countries 20 years after the end of the wars in former Yugoslavia, and the Western Balkans remains only partially integrated into Western structures of security and economics. Today, it is a region in which NATO and the EU compete for influence alongside Russia and China. Following Stalin’s death in 1953, relations between the two countries were standardised and Yugoslavia received assistance from the USSR and the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance – Comecon (Woydyłło, 1992) Another Balkan country in which the Soviet Union lost its influence was Albania. It was similar in the Balkans, but not as peaceful as in the case of Poland, Czechoslovakia and the Baltic countries

The Balkans Remains Important for Russia

The Future of the Balkans

Findings

Conclusions