Rusya’nın Balkanlar Politikası

Since 16th century Russians in pursuit of ambitions to enlarge their empire, have seen as mandatory to expand to the east and to the south. In this context in March 2014, since the annexation of Crimea and on behalf of Russia’s campaign to destabilize Ukraine, Moscow in the post-Cold War period has clearly become a revisionist power willingly to rewrite their own borders and international rules. Balkans, historically is a region with a strategic importance for Russia throughout history. The Kosovo crisis of 1999, has been an important issue that made Russia to return back to the Balkans. "Crossing the Straits", "Slavic-Orthodox brotherhood", the efforts to counteract the Atlantic coalition, its energy security, factors such as geo-strategic and geo-cultural interests, are consideres to understood more easily how important Balkans area is for Russia.