The US considers the Balkan Peninsula to be an outpost of Russian influence in Southern Europe. According to American analysts, the sympathy of local residents to Moscow poses a real threat to Western interests in the region.

However, Russian experts consider the successes of the Russian Federation in the Balkans to be excessively exaggerated. The American press writes that Russia views the Balkans as a battlefield in its political war and successfully increases its influence in this region. Fearing the influence of Moscow, the EU is already developing a membership perspective for Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro, Macedonia, Albania and Kosovo in exchange for fundamental reforms. The United States is reviewing the potential threats to the security of the Balkan countries - NATO members, notes "Vzglyad". US strategists need to immediately incline the Balkans to their side, since this is the most important point of contact between the Russian and Western spheres of influence. Otherwise, they say in the State Department, Russia will completely take the region to its hands. However, such fears of Americans are far from the truth. For example, the president of Serbia, Alexander Vucic, speaks of the importance of friendship with the Russian Federation, but he does not refuse from the European course either. All initiatives of Serbian and Montenegrin pro-Russian activists to create a kind of "non-aligned movement" in the Balkans are mercilessly ruined at the root. Russia has not been able to register its TV channel in Serbia or Bulgaria for many years, but the Balkan media are actively buying up American owners. So the growth of Russian influence in the region is more the propaganda course of American strategists who want to persuade the leadership of their country to take up the Balkans. Compared to the 1990s and 2000s, the conflict zone between Russia and the West moved away from Russia's borders to the Balkan Peninsula (if Ukraine is not taken into account). Each former republic of the USSR made its choice - someone joined the EAEC and the CSTO, someone took the pro-Western rails.

For Russia this is a positive factor, but the fate of the Balkans is still in question. On the side of the West, all the above factors play, on the side of Russia - the proximity of mentalities. In the United States, it is not taken into account that the American model of democracy is bad for the Balkan countries, so its forcible imposition may sooner or later lead to a riot, when local residents call on the help of close and understandable Russians. Nevertheless, spiritual kinship is a powerful instrument of influence, but it is not enough to ensure a political advantage.

Apparently, in the next few years, and even decades (if there are no global cataclysms and radical fractures), the Balkan Peninsula will continue to sit on two chairs and maneuver between the two spheres of influence. Hardly any of the parties is guaranteed a clear advantage. For the Russian Federation and the United States, this region will remain a competitive zone and a big headache. To really gain a foothold in the Balkans, our country will need to exert a lot of effort, and references to the Slavic brotherhood of nations will clearly not be enough.