The investigation of the International Journalistic Consortium OCCPR about Russia's attempts to influence the policy of Macedonia shows that the Kremlin is serious about destabilizing the situation in the Balkans, since this region is the weak link in Europe.

This in his article for "Glavred" wrote a political scientist and journalist Vitaly Portnikov.

He recalls that the investigation cites the Russian ambassador to Macedonia, Oleg Shcherbak, explaining to his interlocutor from the local foreign ministry the Kremlin's goal of "creating a strip of neutral countries in the Balkans" (that is, dependent on Moscow).

These states should be Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia and Serbia, but Moscow did not succeed.

Thus, Portnikov notes that Montenegro - contrary to the pressure of the Kremlin - joined NATO, and in Macedonia, the pro-Western government of Prime Minister Zoran Zayev. Serbian President Nikolic left politics without provoking a new conflict in Kosovo, and Prime Minister Vucic became the new president.

"But to expect that Putin will quit, I would not. In the Balkans, he has a whole robbery network precisely because this region is a weak link in Europe.

Until recently, Ukraine was such a weak link - and he attacked us. The weak link was Syria - and he climbed there. Weak links are the only possibility for an international bully to prove his worth. And Putin enjoys this opportunity, "the journalist concluded..

As reported by the "Observer", previously in Montenegro, Russia was accused of trying to carry out a coup to block the country's entry into NATO.

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