Relations of Serbia with Russia and EU as viewed by national press-media

Lobanov, Mikhail and Zvezdanović Lobanova, Jelena (2016) Relations of Serbia with Russia and EU as viewed by national press-media. Современная Европа / Contemporary Europe (3). pp. 79-92. ISSN 0201-7083

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Abstract

Growing tensions between Russia and the West modify the foreign policy of the Balkan countries. A typical example is the Republic of Serbia, which strives to maintain an equidistant position in confrontation of geopolitical centers, but it is forced to be in the wake of the foreign policy of Brussels as a result of holding the status of the EU candidate country. The imposition of sanctions has shown the lack of unity of EU member states on the issue of relations with Russia. Belgrade considers the support of sanctions against Russia as unacceptable and is interested in increase of the volume of agricultural products export to the Russian market. Position of Serbia could be explained not only by economic pragmatism, but by the fact of the long history of friendly relations between the two countries. Among the main challenges of the Russian-Serbian cooperation are difficulties in the development of energy dialogue, mainly caused by the cancellation of the “South Stream” project. The lack of security concerning natural gas supply after the probable suspension of Ukrainian supply route forces the Serbian authorities to make adjustments in energy policy, in particular, to accelerate the process of diversification of energy resources import. The West, therefore, has got a favorable opportunity to reduce the level of dependency of Serbia on Russian gas and, in general, to influence the potential of its cooperation with Russia in the energy sector.

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