Russia-Yugoslavia relations (21st Century Crisis)

Russia-Yugoslavia relations (Russian: Отношения Россия-Югославия Otnosheniya Rossiya-Yugoslaviya, Serbo-Croatian: Руско-Југославенски односи Rusko-Jugoslavenski odnosi) are the bilateral relations between the United Russian Republics and the Federal Republics of Yugoslavia. Seeing themselves as avid protectors of the Slavic peoples, Russia has always histoically supported Slavic civilizations against their enemies, especially in the Balkans. During World War II, SFR Yugoslavia emerged as a communist state. However, unlike the other communist states, Yugoslavia was not under direct Soviet subjagation, and despite being part of the Warsaw Pact, had a working economy independant of Soviet control. In many respects, Yugoslavia was considered its own power. Tito emerged as the Eastern Bloc's second-most powerful leader from Sergey Sedov, leader of the Soviet Union, even more powerful and more influential than Mao Zedong of China. During the Manchuria Conflict, Yugoslavia sent small contingents to fight on the Soviet side. Yugoslav relations with Moscow once-more, strengthened during the Yugoslav Wars, when Belgrade called on Moscow to aid them in their war against pro-NATO nationalist ethnic paramiliaries. Soviet forces fought in the Balkans Wars on Yugoslavia's side, and eventually, helped Yugoslavia build its own nuclear weapons program. It is then that Yugoslavia allowed the Soviets to station oversees forces in Kosovo, which became a hotbed of activity by Albanian seperatists, comparable to Chechnya and Ukraine. Both NATO and Soviet forces stationed in Kosovo, where Kosovo remains militarily divided today between NATO and Russian forces. In 2018, Belgrade gave Moscow the greenlight to build more military bases in Kosovo, after NATO had been disbanding its forces from Kosovo.