Russian foreign policy towards SE Europe in post-Cold war era: Moscow’s quest for power in a competing international system: the case of Kosovo.

Abstract

Russia after the collapse of the Soviet Union seemed powerless to defend its interests in the near external and neighboring environment, let alone the interests of former allies (such as Serbia), which watched, unable to react, to leave one by one from the Warsaw Pact for seeking for an accession in EU and NATO. In the early 1990s Russia in the Balkans region followed rather a «neutral policy», primarily due to inconveniences related to difficulties confronted in internal political scene level as well as in international level, her leadership although aware of the huge internally and economic problems facing Russia, showed difficulties in adapting herself in the new realities of the international system, as if USSR had not ceased to exist. Thus, Russia fatally accepted the dissolution of Yugoslavia, without being able to protect the vital interests of its last ally in the Balkans, who was no other than Serbia. The successor of B. Yeltsin, V. Putin, after having brought about the economic recovery and managed to de-ideologize the Foreign Policy of Russia, attempted the configuration of the foreign policy based on energy and financial investment. Putin played a prominent role in the effort to maintain the status quo in Kosovo, given that a potential secession of Kosovo would mean the creation of precedent for future secessions in other areas, some of which are located in Russian’s south border. In this regard, Russia was the first country that reacted to Kosovo’s declaration of independence and competed for a non-international recognition of Kosovo, taking advantage of its participation in UNSC.