RUSSIA-UKRAINE Moscow plays the ‘Balkan card’ in Crimea

The peninsula seized from Ukraine seeks to strengthen ties with Orthodox countries such as Serbia and Bulgaria. The goal: to attract more tourists and visitors despite Western sanctions. The Russians are looking for alternatives to get out of the isolation promoted by the United States and Europe.

Moscow () – Russian Crimean television reports on the visit of a delegation from Sevastopol to Serbia on the occasion of the international conference “Dialogue of Cultures: Russia and the Balkans”, which took place in Belgrade. The delegation was made up of a group of Crimean Bulgarians, heirs to the ancient ethnic group that existed before the formation of Kievan Rus’.

Already last year, at the initiative of the Crimean leader Sergey Aksenov, appointed by Moscow, the authorities of the peninsula had invited a delegation from Sofia to Sevastopol, seeking a rapprochement between several Crimean cities and Bulgaria. The mayor of the Bulgarian city of Opan, Genčo Kolev, had been designated as responsible for the exchanges, since the Russians appreciate his track record in the post-Soviet secret service, and his status as a representative of the Bulgarian Socialist Party, heir to the Communist Party. .

Several observers, such as Professor Boris Babin, from Yevpatoria (Crimea), believe that these exchanges indicate that Russia has decided to use the “Balkan card” in Crimea, to attract tourists and visitors from Bulgaria, Serbia and other countries to the peninsula. linked to the EU. In reality, Serbia is a neutral country – it is not a member of the EU or NATO, although it has distanced itself from the Russian war in Ukraine – but it remains one of the countries traditionally most closely linked to Moscow, and welcomes Russian citizens no restrictions.

Crimean politician Ivan Abažer led the visit to Belgrade, introducing himself as “the leader of the Crimean Bulgarian community” and invited Bulgarians and Serbs to visit the region. He participated as an observer in the election of the president of Serbia, as part of the Russian delegation. Cultural exchanges in this sense are financed by the Gorčakov Foundation, created by the Moscow Ministry of Foreign Affairs, to initiate educational programs of the so-called “Balkan dialogue”.

Since 2020, these meetings have been held every year at various levels, and the Belgrade meeting took place with the cooperation of Russkij Dom, a cultural association that created the “Rossotrudničestva” (Russian Partnership) and operates directly in Serbia. Television Krym 24 devoted numerous reports to this initiative, interviewing several Serbian personalities, such as Bilana Živkovič, president of the Serbian Orthodox Women’s Society, and the political scientist and director of the European Research Institute Stefan Gaijč, a man who openly supports the Russian war in Ukraine .

With a strong propaganda seal, the Russian media gave wide coverage to the events of the Crimean visit, but very few people participated in them and they were not commented on much by the Serbs. Still, numerous high-level cooperation projects were signed.

It is clear that Russia is looking for alternative ways in Europe to get out of the isolation caused by sanctions. It cannot be content with relations with Asian or African countries, and the Balkan Peninsula has always been a zone of geopolitical and “spiritual” influence for Russia. Several speeches have tried to draw a parallel between Crimea and Kosovo, alluding to the two “sacred lands” linked to the Christian origins of the Slavic countries.

Ukraine, for its part, has never recognized the referendum on Kosovo’s independence, despite the fact that it was held under very different conditions, without Albanian occupying armies and with a year’s preparation – and not in fifteen days, as happened in Crimea in 2014. Many of these countries (Bulgaria, Greece, Romania, Slovenia, and Croatia) are EU and NATO members, while Albania, North Macedonia, Turkey, and Montenegro are NATO members and candidates for membership. the European Union. Serbia is outside these accessions, and Russia tries by all means to attract it to its side.