Russian influence rising in Balkans, Baltics, Central Europe

While Russian influence is the most obvious in the Balkans, an upsurge of populism in Central Europe has also played into Moscow’s hands, providing sympathetic political parties and politicians across the continent, including in European Union nations like Hungary, Austria and the Czech Republic.

Pro-Russia forces also did well in another corner of Europe. In Latvia, an opposition party favored by the country’s large ethnic Russian minority got the most votes Saturday in the Baltic nation’s parliamentary election, although the party is expected to run into difficulties in trying to form a coalition government.

Latvia’s Russian minority is a major domestic political force, accounting for about 25 percent of its nearly 2 million people, a legacy of nearly 50 years of Soviet occupation that ended in 1991. Russia staunchly opposes any more Balkan countries joining NATO. Western officials have expressed fear that Russia has used its historic Slavic and Orthodox Christian ties in the region to undermine Western policies of integration.

Sarajevo-based political analyst Adan Huskic said Moscow’s influence was also growing in the parts of Europe that don’t have those identity links. What these countries have in common are “high levels of nepotism, corruption” so bonding more closely with Western democracies is “by nature, very difficult for them,” he said. Russia’s strategic aim is not to assert authority over the Balkans but to “harness and magnify existing tensions,” the European Council on Foreign Relations said in a report.

https://apnews.com/05da1f1eabeb428db5b8e40f1ca28bdb