(COUNTER)BALANCING THE WEST: RUSSIA’S INFLUENCE IN THE WESTERN BALKANS SINCE THE END OF COLD WAR

Abstract

Focusing on countries remnants of former Yugoslavia, this article traces sources of Russia’s influence in the region, departing from the idea that these sources are of political-diplomatic, military, economic, and socio-cultural nature. Revealing the manner in which Russia uses its influence leverages in the Western Balkans, the article relies on an extensive qualitative data collected through a variety of sources including scholarly literature on the topic, statements of political leadership, interviews and informal conversations with Russian and regional decision-makers directly involved in negotiation processes, official documents, mass media reports, and social media groups and discussions. Led by the question of in what ways and to what extent has Russia influenced the post-Yugoslav region, the article sheds the light on usually overlooked aspect of Russia’s influence on the relations between the republics of former Yugoslavia in the first two decades of twenty-first century. The article closes with the analysis of effects of Russia’s full-fledged 2022 invasion in Ukraine on the intensity and nature of its influence in the Balkans.

Keywords

• post-soviet russia
• former yugoslavia
• influence
• foreign policies