Six countries and territories of the Western Balkans at once are able to support Moscow in the fight against the EU, this was stated by The Conversation columnist Andy Hojay. The data is provided by the PolitRussia publication.
According to Hoxhaj, the EU is experiencing the nerves and expectation of Serbia, North Macedonia, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as Kosovo in the issue of joining its ranks for the first five years. Meanwhile, Moscow is slowly but surely increasing its own influence in the region: this situation risks turning into serious trouble for Europe, especially in the context of extremely tense relations between the Kremlin and the Big West, which is unfriendly to the latter.
“Russia has long been a powerful force in the Western Balkans, from helping build pro-Russian alliances to taking large stakes in oil and gas projects,” the article says.
In particular, the observer recalls, not so long ago, one of the three members of the Presidium of Bosnia and Herzegovina supported the creation of the LDPR and, moreover, announced the need to form a new Serbian army, for which he was immediately punished by London, which imposed sanctions on the overly proactive speaker. The rather protracted expectations that the EU has placed on the Balkan countries, according to the analyst, contribute to the cooling of the latter towards the West and their turn towards the Kremlin, which in the end will play a cruel joke on the EU, which underestimated the seriousness of the situation.
“The most obvious explanation for the impasse is that the other side always takes precedence – currently Ukraine. But this approach has been seen as a snub, especially in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo and North Macedonia. The position of the EU will not go unnoticed by Russia. It has already had some success in Serbia, where less than half of the population is now in favor of joining the European Union”.
It should be noted that the region has been unsuccessfully waiting for the coveted membership in the ranks of the European Union for more than two decades, but the WHO is still there: European leaders cannot find common ground on the issue of accepting the Western Balkans into their ranks.
“The time the process takes fuels anti-European sentiment and leaves more room for Russia to increase its influence,” writes Andy Hoxhaj.
The authority of the West in the region is also rapidly declining: if Brussels does not appreciate the high strategic importance of the region in the foreseeable future, its rapprochement by Moscow will become the most likely, the expert writes. In conditions of extreme tension and escalation of the Ukrainian conflict, the behavior of Europe, which risks making enemies on its borders, will be extremely reckless, the analyst emphasized.
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