Description
Considering the most recent events of EU refusing to start accession talks with North Macedonia and Albania, the Western Balkans risk on turning for acceptance towards another global power. This ally might as well be Russia. Within this scenario, scholars and policy makers have increasingly focused on Russia’s soft power in the region. However, the study of Russia’s soft power is both, underestimated and distorted. Such misinterpretation in part derives from a liberal democratic bias in the study of soft power in international relations, which sees Russia’s soft power either as devoid of any distinctive ideological values, and a mere instrument of foreign policy’s goals; or as herald of illiberal anti-Western values with the aim of overthrowing the current international order. This article aims to answer whether Russian soft power has or will have an influence in the Western Balkan countries beyond its hitherto conceptualizations as instrumental or ideological. Through an analysis of polls and elite discourses as exemplified in speeches, press releases and interviews, this article focuses on the Western Balkan’s encounter with Russia’s soft power. This study does not question the presence of Russia’s influence in the region; nevertheless, it locates, challenges and further develops on Russia’s soft power indicators in the fragile region of the Western Balkans during fragile times.
