Russia lost the Balkan party
The exchange of diplomatic injections between official Athens and Moscow on July 11, 2018 put an end to the “Balkan Party” played by Russia for 317 years, if we consider its beginning from the Prut campaign of Peter I, undertaken by the Russian Tsar in June-July 1711.
Recall that today the Greek newspaper Katimerini announced the decision of Athens to expel two Russian diplomats from the country and to ban two more representatives of the Russian diplomatic department from entering Greece. According to Katimerini, the diplomats who are supposed to be deported intervened in Greece’s internal affairs and national security issues by collecting and disseminating information, and attempting to bribe government officials to disrupt the conclusion of an agreement between Greece and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia on a new name of the Macedonian state.
On the same day, the Russian Foreign Ministry promised to take mirror measures and, accordingly, to send an equal number of Greek diplomats from Russia. The Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) of Russia refrained from commenting on the expulsion of Russian diplomats from Greece.
As you know, the so-called “name dispute” between Athens and Skopje is the last obstacle to the entry of the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia into the European Union and NATO. Meanwhile, in June-early July, Macedonian parliamentarians twice ratified the agreement with Greece on renaming the country, overcoming the resistance of the President of Macedonia, who tried to block this decision. At the same time, after the first ratification of the agreement in the Macedonian parliament, EU officials announced their readiness to begin negotiations in June 2019 on the accession of Albania and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia to the European Union, and apparently similar statements will be made at the NATO summit that opened in Brussels today.
Meanwhile, most of the countries of the Balkan region are part of NATO and the EU. Since 1952, the Alliance has included Greece and Turkey, since 1999 - Hungary, since 2004 - Bulgaria, Romania, Slovenia, since 2009 - Albania and Croatia, since 2017 - Montenegro. Thus, so far, only Macedonia (the obstacle to entry of which is now removed) remains outside the Atlantic bloc, Serbia, whose population after the NATO bombing of 1999 does not support the idea of joining NATO, although policy gradually leading the country to this decision, as well as Bosnia and Herzegovina, which is in the process of gradually approaching the standards of the North Atlantic bloc and its subsequent entry into this organization.
Approximately the same situation with the participation of the Balkan countries in the EU. Albania, Macedonia, Serbia, Montenegro and Turkey are the so-called EU candidate countries, Bosnia and Herzegovina are part of the official EU enlargement program. Excluding Turkey, which the EU is unlikely to ever agree to accept into its ranks, all other countries, of course, over time, will join the structures of a united Europe.
The successful promotion of the EU and NATO in the Balkan region, of course, puts a final and fat cross on all hopes of Russia to enjoy a certain influence in the Balkans, relying on historical traditions, ethnic affinity with the Balkan Slavs and the strong positions of the Orthodox Church in these countries.
Meanwhile, the Balkan policy of Russia began in this region once very bravura and rather adventurous. Recall the so-called “Greek project” of Catherine II, in the framework of which it was supposed to revive the Orthodox Byzantium with the grandson of the Russian Empress, who received the name Constantine in accordance with this plan, and divide the territory of the Ottoman Empire between Russia, the Austrian Empire and the Venetian Republic.
Everyone knows about the famous British pirate and knight, Sir Francis Drake, the brutal pirate of the Caribbean, Sir Henry Morgan, who ended his career as vice-governor of Jamaica, and their literary embodiment, captain Blade, also appointed by his creator Rafael Sabatini to governor. However, in the history of the Russian Empire, which saw the Balkans as one of the general directions of its policy, there were many similar examples worthy of the masters of the adventure genre.
Since the time of the first archipelago expedition of the Russian fleet, the same one associated with the name of Count Alexei Orlov-Chesmensky, Italian, Dalmatian and Greek pirates have generously received Russian maritime patents and have achieved great success in the Russian service.
Privateer Anton Alexiano, starting with the modest rank of lieutenant, rose to the rank of vice admiral of the Russian fleet. And the first commander of the Black Sea Fleet, whose subordination was at one time the great Russian naval commander Fedor Ushakov, Marko Voinovich, was a Serbian count and Russian corsair from the present Montenegrin resort town of Kotor, which was then called the Italian manner of Boca di Cattaro.
The Greek pirate Ioannis Varvakis accepted in 1770 the Russian privateer patent and entered the Russian service. Although he did not reach major naval ranks, remaining only a lieutenant, in 1776 he became governor-general of the Astrakhan province, and in 1823, already being a Russian merchant-millionaire, he returned to Greece, since 1821 fighting for its independence from Turkey .
Incidentally, the first ruler of independent Greece in 1827-1831 was the Greek aristocrat Count John Kapodistrias, admitted to the Russian service by Admiral Ushakov, and in 1816-1822 he was the former, neither more nor less, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Empire. However, nothing came of this “small Greek project” either. Times were wild then, and the Mavromichali brothers, supporters of the French orientation in politics, slaughtered John Kapodistrias directly in the church in the morning service.
We also note a curious fact from the history of Greek-Russian relations. At the end of 1853 and the beginning of 1854, the then King of Greece, Otton I, seriously considered entering into an alliance with Russia and taking part in the war against Turkey, and the Greek population supported this intention; since at that time Russia was already at war with Turkey, and defeated the Turkish fleet in Sinope, Greek volunteers attempted to recapture from the Turks a number of historical provinces of Greece, then belonging to the Ottoman Port.
However, the deal did not come to the Russo-Greek alliance and the declaration by the Greeks of the war against Turkey - England and France shortly before the landing in the Crimea carried out a sea blockade of the Greek coast, and as a result of a coup d'etat, a government oriented towards cooperation with Western allies came to power, which Greeks then did not call anything other than “occupational”.
Throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, Russia and the USSR sought to wage a great-power diplomatic game in the Balkans, intending to make Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia, Montenegro, then socialist Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, Romania, in chronological order. However, in the final analysis it always turned out that Western countries always had greater economic and political influence in the Balkan states than Russia, and Russian and Soviet diplomacy never managed to build the relations with the countries of the region that they aspired to.
Even the Romanian dictator-communist Nicolae Ceausescu, who, it would seem, should have been both hands for close cooperation with the USSR, in the 1970s and 1980s, without a twinge of conscience, he fronted, developing independent economic relations and militarytechnical partnership with EU and NATO countries.
Note that in addition to Western economic and diplomatic influence, which prevented Russia from establishing itself in the Balkans, Russian and Soviet statesmen should also blame themselves, since in the XNUMXth, in the XNUMXth centuries, in the Russian Empire, in the USSR there were many interdepartmental and interdepartmental conflicts regarding politics in the Balkan region, and this did not contribute to the effectiveness of Russia's actions.
Events of the present time, that is, a forced victory march to the Balkans by the European Union and NATO, on the one hand, mean a complete and final burial of the historical sovereign Balkan policy of Russia.
On the other hand, however, it must be assumed that in the capitals of the Balkan states from time to time it will be tempting to use Russia as a situational counterbalance to Western countries in order to improve its position in the dialogue with the EU and NATO, as it now does, for example Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Recall that today the Greek newspaper Katimerini announced the decision of Athens to expel two Russian diplomats from the country and to ban two more representatives of the Russian diplomatic department from entering Greece. According to Katimerini, the diplomats who are supposed to be deported intervened in Greece’s internal affairs and national security issues by collecting and disseminating information, and attempting to bribe government officials to disrupt the conclusion of an agreement between Greece and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia on a new name of the Macedonian state.
On the same day, the Russian Foreign Ministry promised to take mirror measures and, accordingly, to send an equal number of Greek diplomats from Russia. The Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) of Russia refrained from commenting on the expulsion of Russian diplomats from Greece.
As you know, the so-called “name dispute” between Athens and Skopje is the last obstacle to the entry of the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia into the European Union and NATO. Meanwhile, in June-early July, Macedonian parliamentarians twice ratified the agreement with Greece on renaming the country, overcoming the resistance of the President of Macedonia, who tried to block this decision. At the same time, after the first ratification of the agreement in the Macedonian parliament, EU officials announced their readiness to begin negotiations in June 2019 on the accession of Albania and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia to the European Union, and apparently similar statements will be made at the NATO summit that opened in Brussels today.
Meanwhile, most of the countries of the Balkan region are part of NATO and the EU. Since 1952, the Alliance has included Greece and Turkey, since 1999 - Hungary, since 2004 - Bulgaria, Romania, Slovenia, since 2009 - Albania and Croatia, since 2017 - Montenegro. Thus, so far, only Macedonia (the obstacle to entry of which is now removed) remains outside the Atlantic bloc, Serbia, whose population after the NATO bombing of 1999 does not support the idea of joining NATO, although policy gradually leading the country to this decision, as well as Bosnia and Herzegovina, which is in the process of gradually approaching the standards of the North Atlantic bloc and its subsequent entry into this organization.
Approximately the same situation with the participation of the Balkan countries in the EU. Albania, Macedonia, Serbia, Montenegro and Turkey are the so-called EU candidate countries, Bosnia and Herzegovina are part of the official EU enlargement program. Excluding Turkey, which the EU is unlikely to ever agree to accept into its ranks, all other countries, of course, over time, will join the structures of a united Europe.
The successful promotion of the EU and NATO in the Balkan region, of course, puts a final and fat cross on all hopes of Russia to enjoy a certain influence in the Balkans, relying on historical traditions, ethnic affinity with the Balkan Slavs and the strong positions of the Orthodox Church in these countries.
Meanwhile, the Balkan policy of Russia began in this region once very bravura and rather adventurous. Recall the so-called “Greek project” of Catherine II, in the framework of which it was supposed to revive the Orthodox Byzantium with the grandson of the Russian Empress, who received the name Constantine in accordance with this plan, and divide the territory of the Ottoman Empire between Russia, the Austrian Empire and the Venetian Republic.
Everyone knows about the famous British pirate and knight, Sir Francis Drake, the brutal pirate of the Caribbean, Sir Henry Morgan, who ended his career as vice-governor of Jamaica, and their literary embodiment, captain Blade, also appointed by his creator Rafael Sabatini to governor. However, in the history of the Russian Empire, which saw the Balkans as one of the general directions of its policy, there were many similar examples worthy of the masters of the adventure genre.
Since the time of the first archipelago expedition of the Russian fleet, the same one associated with the name of Count Alexei Orlov-Chesmensky, Italian, Dalmatian and Greek pirates have generously received Russian maritime patents and have achieved great success in the Russian service.
Privateer Anton Alexiano, starting with the modest rank of lieutenant, rose to the rank of vice admiral of the Russian fleet. And the first commander of the Black Sea Fleet, whose subordination was at one time the great Russian naval commander Fedor Ushakov, Marko Voinovich, was a Serbian count and Russian corsair from the present Montenegrin resort town of Kotor, which was then called the Italian manner of Boca di Cattaro.
The Greek pirate Ioannis Varvakis accepted in 1770 the Russian privateer patent and entered the Russian service. Although he did not reach major naval ranks, remaining only a lieutenant, in 1776 he became governor-general of the Astrakhan province, and in 1823, already being a Russian merchant-millionaire, he returned to Greece, since 1821 fighting for its independence from Turkey .
Incidentally, the first ruler of independent Greece in 1827-1831 was the Greek aristocrat Count John Kapodistrias, admitted to the Russian service by Admiral Ushakov, and in 1816-1822 he was the former, neither more nor less, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Empire. However, nothing came of this “small Greek project” either. Times were wild then, and the Mavromichali brothers, supporters of the French orientation in politics, slaughtered John Kapodistrias directly in the church in the morning service.
We also note a curious fact from the history of Greek-Russian relations. At the end of 1853 and the beginning of 1854, the then King of Greece, Otton I, seriously considered entering into an alliance with Russia and taking part in the war against Turkey, and the Greek population supported this intention; since at that time Russia was already at war with Turkey, and defeated the Turkish fleet in Sinope, Greek volunteers attempted to recapture from the Turks a number of historical provinces of Greece, then belonging to the Ottoman Port.
However, the deal did not come to the Russo-Greek alliance and the declaration by the Greeks of the war against Turkey - England and France shortly before the landing in the Crimea carried out a sea blockade of the Greek coast, and as a result of a coup d'etat, a government oriented towards cooperation with Western allies came to power, which Greeks then did not call anything other than “occupational”.
Throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, Russia and the USSR sought to wage a great-power diplomatic game in the Balkans, intending to make Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia, Montenegro, then socialist Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, Romania, in chronological order. However, in the final analysis it always turned out that Western countries always had greater economic and political influence in the Balkan states than Russia, and Russian and Soviet diplomacy never managed to build the relations with the countries of the region that they aspired to.
Even the Romanian dictator-communist Nicolae Ceausescu, who, it would seem, should have been both hands for close cooperation with the USSR, in the 1970s and 1980s, without a twinge of conscience, he fronted, developing independent economic relations and militarytechnical partnership with EU and NATO countries.
Note that in addition to Western economic and diplomatic influence, which prevented Russia from establishing itself in the Balkans, Russian and Soviet statesmen should also blame themselves, since in the XNUMXth, in the XNUMXth centuries, in the Russian Empire, in the USSR there were many interdepartmental and interdepartmental conflicts regarding politics in the Balkan region, and this did not contribute to the effectiveness of Russia's actions.
Events of the present time, that is, a forced victory march to the Balkans by the European Union and NATO, on the one hand, mean a complete and final burial of the historical sovereign Balkan policy of Russia.
On the other hand, however, it must be assumed that in the capitals of the Balkan states from time to time it will be tempting to use Russia as a situational counterbalance to Western countries in order to improve its position in the dialogue with the EU and NATO, as it now does, for example Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
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