Russia in the Western Balkans: Montenegro, Macedonia and Serbia

Abstract The eurozone crisis has produced an increasing influence of Eastern countries in the Balkan region. Indeed, the Western Balkans has been subject to growing Russian attention, particularly in the economic dimension. The present paper assessed Russian impact in Montenegro, Macedonia and Serbia. Considering the data from these three countries the strongest economic influence has been found for Serbia, a country which has close proximity to Russia not only in economic terms but also political stance, religion etc. Conversely the Russian influence in Macedonia and Montenegro has been mainly economic, while the latest has more recently taken a few steps back from Russia towards a pro-European approach. It might be claimed that the lack of vision and the uncertainty of European Union decisions in relation to the Balkans, would promote a pro-Eastern influence not only from Russia but also other countries such as Turkey and China. Nonetheless at the moment such influence seems to be mainly economic and less political