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.

Russia has an embassy in Belgrade, and Yugoslavia has an embassy in Moscow as well as a general consulate in St. Petersburg.

Yugoslavia is considered part of the Russian military bloc, as Russia owns several overseas bases in Yugoslavia and the disputed Kosovo where Russia provides military aid to Yugoslavia.

Russia is also an important economic partner, and is Yugoslavia's second-largest economic partner, second to the European Union. The main points of economic cooperation between Yugoslavia and Russia are the gas and petrochemical industry, education, renewable energy and tourism. In addition, Russia is also a vital partner in Yugoslavia's science industries, especially in its space program.

Russia is the highest recipient of foreign exchange students from Yugoslavia, the same can be said of Yugoslavia with Russian students.

Seeing themselves as avid protectors of the Slavic peoples, Russia has always historically 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 subjugation, chose not to join the Warsaw Pact and had a working economy independent of Soviet control. In many respects, Yugoslavia was considered its own power. Josip Broz Tito emerged as the Eastern Bloc's second-most powerful leader after 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. It is Tito, not Sedov, who emerged as a symbol of communism and socialism in the Balkans, actively supporting the communists in the Greek Civil War.

Without Stalin, relations between USSR and SFRY never falter, and Sedov respects Tito's decision.

The SFRY and the USSR each collaborated in attempts to support communists in the Turkish Civil War, though communists lost Greece and failed to conquer all of Turkey. However, Yugoslavia was successful in supporting the communists in Albania, leading to the People's Republic of Albania, as well as consolidating communist control of the Democratic Turkish Republic under Mohamet Tamer, a Turkish communist who helped the Soviets fight Abdulmejid II's forces. Nikita Khrushchev awarded Josip Broz Tito the Order of the Red Banner Award.

The DTR, under Yugoslav influence, was allowed to join the Balkan Federation, being the second Warsaw Pact state after Bulgaria to be able to become part of two pacts.

Despite not being aligned with the Warsaw Pact, Yugoslavia also invested in a nuclear weapons program and allowed for friendly relations with the West. Yugoslavia experimented with and used both Western and Soviet equipment. Yugoslavia emerged as the most Western-friendly communist state.

After Bulgarian military officer Georgi Ivanov went up into space aboard a Soviet spacecraft. Yugoslavia began serious investments in its own respective space program, working with both Soviet and American scientists. Eventually, Yugocosmos was formed. The first Yugoslav cosmonaut, Česlav Gavrilović, went aboard the Soyuz 36. Yugoslavia had plans to build its own spacecraft, progress was being made. However, the Balkans Wars delayed those hopes, and no serious attempts were made to recover, until President Ivan Lokar's Westernization program, in which he initiated mass funding for Yugocosmos later in 2005.

Yugoslav relations with Moscow once more strengthened during the Yugoslav Wars, when Ante Marković, Josip Broz Tito's successor, called on Moscow to aid them in their war against pro-NATO nationalist ethnic paramilitaries. Soviet forces fought in the Balkan Wars on Yugoslavia's side. Soviets helped guard Yugoslav nuclear weapon facilities from separatists, and practically cut any severe Croatian communications and shipping routes from the Western world, denying NATO access into Croatia.

Marković adopted Gorbachev's "smooth transition" tactic, or slowly turning Yugoslavia from communist to free-market capitalism.

It is then that Yugoslavia allowed the Soviets to station overseas forces in Kosovo, which became a hotbed of activity by Albanian separatists, comparable to Chechnya and Ukraine. In addition, Soviet forces helped Yugoslavs defeat Croatian nationalists.

Both NATO and Soviet forces are stationed in Kosovo, where Kosovo remains militarily divided today between NATO and Russian forces. Despite the Soviet Union being weakened, it still retained a viable presence in Kosovo, enough for NATO to rethink plans for an easy victory.

In 2000, Vladimir Zhirinovsky became the last president of the Soviet Union and the first president of the United Russian Republics. A staunch interventionist, Zhirinovsky increased Russian military presence in Kosovo in support of Yugoslavia. At this point, the ratio of foreign military forces In Kosovo favored Russia 7:3, despite Russia being outnumbered in terms of belligerent nations involved. The lone Russian forces amounted to 763 troops compared to 301 of combined NATO forces. Combined with Yugoslav military and paramilitary, Russia and Yugoslavia combined for nearly 1,000 troops, making Kosovo Russia's heaviest overseas concentration of overseas forces.

Despite this, Yugoslav leaders began embarking on a various Westernization, for the sake of Yugoslavia's economy. They often followed many pro-Russia nations' tactics, looking to the European Union and the West for economic progress, and to Russia for military aid. However, Russia still remained an important economic partner, and soon, the United States, the European Union and Russia became Yugoslavia's three largest economic partners, though Yugoslavia remained closer to the European Union, seeing it was the only option to westernize without being swallowed in what many Yugoslav nationalists refer to as the "imperialist black hole".

Yugoslavia had, at one point, feigned membership in the European Union, although never supported the idea of being a NATO member due to NATO's support of Albanian separatists in Kosovo, and remembering that it was NATO that supported the breakup of Yugoslavia.

Yugocosmos cooperated with NASA, a lot more than it did with Roscosmos, the main Russian space agency.

In 2008, despite no official initial statements from the Yugoslav government (likely in fears of economic retaliation from the European Union), the majority of Yugoslavs supported Russia's invasion of northern Georgia, as well as Azerbaijan. Only a year later did President Ivan Lokar state public support for Russia.

In 2010, Ivo Josipović from Croatia of the Progressive Party of Yugoslavia became president of Yugoslavia. In the beginning stages, Josipović led a westernization program, nearly damaging and endangering relations with Russia.

However, Russia doubted the legitimacy of Josipović's victory, and supported claims made by the United Yugoslavia Party's of election rigging. A spokesperson for the Josipović Administration accused Russia of lying, the European Union also accused Russia of lying, and advised Yugoslavia to exit the Russian orbit around Russia.

In spite of all this, in 2011, Russia and Yugoslavia increased their ties in education, promoting tourism to one another's countries. Russia also increased its support for Yugoslavia's sciences industry, located mainly in Croatia, considered Yugoslavia's "science republic".

On June 11, 2011, the first-ever Russian School in Belgrade opened, owned by the Russian Embassy in Belgrade. In 2018, Belgrade gave Moscow the green light to build more military bases in Kosovo, after NATO had been disbanding its forces from Kosovo.

In 2014, Josipović finally showed his true anti-Russia intentions, when he condemned Russia for separating Crimea, Donetsk and Luvansk from East Ukraine. In addition, Josipović hinted that he wanted Yugoslavia to be a European Union and NATO state by asking Russia to decrease their military presence in Kosovo, and having multiple meetings with NATO leaders in Brussels.

In addition, Josipović accused Russian agents of trying to meddle and complicate Yugoslav membership in the Catholic Commonwealth, something Putin vehemently denied.

Josipović finally agreed to Western demands to conduct an investigation into YugoPetrol and Balkanska, two petrochemical and gas companies accused of illegally producing chemical weapons for Bashar al-Assad, conspiring with Russia to produce Novichok, and to create a Yugoslav version known as Yugochok.

Ivo Josipović stated, "This is no longer the [First] Cold War, we are not a servant of Moscow, [Josip Broz] Tito would never approve of what is happening right now and as President of Yugoslavia, I must carry forth my duties to ensure that nobody in here is committing atrocities."

This only led to more political hatred against the West, and calls for Yugoslavia to move closer to Russia's political orbit.

This led to Josipović's decisive downfall against Vladimir Matijević of the pro-Russia United Yugoslavia Party In the 2015 elections, as Josipović was considered a traitor. Attacks against ethnic Croats and Croatian-speaking churches mushroomed in activity, not only by Serbian and Macedonian Orthodox, but by Slovenes as well, who despite being Catholic, shared the Russophilia shared by their Macedonian and Serbian counterparts.

Bulgaria, despite also feigning NATO membership, also sent forces into Kosovo on Yugoslavia and Russia's side, upon hearing that Western and pro-Western powers were sending forces in Kosovo's separatist side. Still, Russia simply increased its presence to 2,500 troops, against 611 total of combined NATO, Saudi and Pakistani forces, despite Chinese objections of Pakistani involvement. In 2013, Russia stated their support for the Balkan Railway, which would connect Yugoslavia, Turkey, Bulgaria and Greece, for tourism and even work purposes. So far, Russia has contributed $442 million to the project, while the European Union has contributed $820 million. Originally, Albania was supposed to be included in the project, but in 2016, the governments of Yugoslavia, Bulgaria and Greece decided to expel Albania from the project, with Turkey finally announcing its agreement in 2018, despite earlier objections which held the project back.

Yugocosmos once more strengthened its cooperation with Roscosmos, significantly decreasing ties with NASA. However, Belgrade has kept its joint space projects with Moscow a secret. Stojan Dušanović, the current President of Yugocosmos denied any allegations, stating that Yugocosmos was committed to working with both NASA and Roscosmos.

Perceptions of Russia in Yugoslavia, despite being close allies, tend to depend on the republic itself, though generally, most republics have fond views of Russia, as many remember that it is Russia (as the Soviet Union) that helped Yugoslavia stay together. For example, in Serbia and Macedonia, opinions of Russia and Russian influence are very positive, due to sharing a common Orthodox background. In Slovenia, despite being Catholic, opinions of Russia are also generally positive, due the common Slavic nationalist backgrounds. In Bosnia, it depends largely on the ethnic group, with Bosnian Serbs seeing Russia in a positive light, with Bosnians generally seeing Russia in a negative light due to Soviet/Russian aid of Yugoslavia, and perceived Islamophobic and Orthodox supremacist forces. In Montenegro, despite also being Orthodox, ethnic Montenegrins see Russia in a negative light, due to Russia's opposition to its separation from Serbia, while Serbs living in Montenegro see Russia in a positive light for the same reason. In Croatia, however, home of progressive movements in Yugoslavia, opinion of Russia is generally negative, with Croatia receiving the reputation of Yugoslavia's most "anti-Russia" republic. Because of the armed forces of Yugoslavia being a military ally of Russia, barely any people from Croatia, with the exception of ethnic Serbs from Croatia, join the Yugoslav armed forces.

However, liberals in Croatia do have connections to Russian liberal groups, with Yulia Tymoshenko, leader of the Progressive Party of Russia, being invited as a guest speaker for the Progressive Party of Yugoslavia in Zagreb, the party's main city. The rise of the Russian opposition to Vladimir Putin has helped Croatian perceptions of Russia to warm.

Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović, the current leader of the Republic of Croatia, and current leader of the Progressive Party of Yugoslavia stated that Croats don't hate Russia, but only the current regime.

She stated, "People think we hate anyone who is Russian, and that is certainly not true. We have many Russian science and technology students coming over here, and we love them, they are fun to work with. Many of our clientele everywhere, be it Croatia or all of Yugoslavia, are from Russia. Let's face it, without Russia, Yugoslavia would not have such a strong economy and society. It is the current Russian regime that we despise. There are so many honorable people from Russia, people like Yulia Tymoshenko, Mikhail Prokhorov, Mike Varshavski and Ksenia Kobchak to name a few. Trust me, we love Russians very much. We just dislike authoritarian regimes, and that apparently translates to hating Russia and anyone who is Russian? We dislike the current regime in Belgrade too, does that mean we are 'anti-Yugoslavia'?"

According to a BBC poll, 78.4% of Yugoslavs see Russia and Russian influence as positive, while 20.5% see it in a negative light (mostly in Croatia, Montenegro, Kosovo and Bosnia). In Russia, 70.9% of Russians see Yugoslavia in a positive light, 25.2% as negative.

Over 82.7% of Russians support military presence in Kosovo, as Russia sides with Yugoslavia's claim on Kosovo.

This would make Yugoslavia among one of the most Russophile nations.