For everything at once: Russia is taking painful revenge on the West in the Balkans
Russian policy in the Balkans is a symmetrical response to the West to its policies of the 90s in the former Soviet Union.
Dimitar Bechev, a senior researcher at the Eurasian Center of the Atlantic Council, writes about this on the organization’s website, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“From Moscow's point of view, in the Balkans it is giving the West a taste of its own pill. If Europeans and Americans invade its “backyard” – Moldova, Ukraine, Georgia, or any other part of the “near abroad” – Russia has the right to do the same,” writes Bechev.
He believes the Western Balkans are part of Russia's strategy to establish itself "as a first-class player in the European security market, along with other major states such as Germany, France and the UK."
“The Balkans are a vulnerable periphery of Europe where Russia can build a foothold, recruit supporters and, ultimately, maximize its leverage over the West,” Bechev writes.
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