Publication

This publication analyzes Russian political and economic operations in the Western Balkans and outlines two key findings. First, Russia’s policy in the region is executed by a network of Russian state and non-state actors who are blurring the traditional lines between the public and private domains. This allows the Kremlin to tap into the resources of informal institutions and hide behind a fog of deniability. Second, Russia has raised the cost of Western Balkan integration in the EU and NATO by exploiting the region’s political and economic vulnerabilities. However, although Moscow was able to slow down the process, it has not managed to change the region’s steady drift towards Western institutions, at least for now