Russia Re-Enacts the Great Game in the Balkans

The direct Russian interventions in Ukraine and Syria, as well as the scandals of the U.S. presidential campaign, have overshadowed another ongoing Russian power play -- one in the Balkans. It's quieter and far less violent than other assertive moves by the Kremlin, but that doesn't make it any less important in the 21st century re-enactment of the Great Game.

Like the former parts of the Russian empire and the Middle East, the Balkans are a longtime Russian playground. While Russia tended to look inward following the Soviet Union's collapse, it could only manage a weak protest when the West oversaw a division of former Yugoslavia that punished traditionally pro-Russian Serbs. The Western view of these objections at the time was aptly described in a recently declassified Central Intelligence Agency analysis from 1993: