Abstract

The strategy of the Kremlin nowadays is set up on a framework that involves economic cooperation, mainly energy provisions through state-controlled giant Gazprom, and through the arms trade too, Russia being the second largest weapons exporter worldwide after the United States. This attempt by Russia to reinforce a theoretical Orthodox Christian alliance in the Balkans through Greece – a strategy which obviously conceals practical Realpolitik interests, as did the “Holy Alliance” of Tsar Alexander I of Russia in 1815 – aims to create an alternative to the Anglo-Saxon-led Western values, as well as to the European Union vision which is generally secular and untied from national historical traditions and Christianity. This strategy is not limited only to Greece, which however represents, potentially, the most significant fulcrum of it, since other Orthodox Balkan countries too – primarily Serbia (and Republika Srpska) but also Montenegro, Macedonia and Cyprus – have become new objects of contention between the Euro-Atlantic powers and the Russian Federation. 

 

Giorgio Cella, PhD Candidate in Institutions and Politics at the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milan.