US Democrats Accuse Russia of 'Targeting' Balkans

A new report produced by US Democrats says Russia is aggressively targeting countries that have taken "tangible steps" to integrate with Western institutions like the EU or NATO in order to impede integration processes.

"Georgia, Ukraine, and Montenegro are the most recent cases in a long history of Russian aggression along the periphery that stretches back generations — and, as they have drawn closer to NATO and the EU, they have been the focus of arguably the most brazen Kremlin efforts to keep them from sliding across the finish line," the report published on Wednesday said.

According to Gallup International Association's "Global Leaders End of Year" survey, published on Wednesday, the most popular world leader among Serbs is Russian President Vladimir Putin (81 percent). According to the B92 report, Putin is followed by Chinese President Xi Jinping (61 percent), Merkel (38 percent), and Macron and US President Donald Trump (33 percent each).

It added that Russian interference in places like Serbia is less visibly aggressive and focuses more on "cultivating sympathetic elements of society to deter government efforts to integrate with the West".

"In addition to disinformation and the co-opting of political forces, Russia employs energy resources as a weapon to gain leverage in these countries," it said.

The Associated Press on Wednesday called the report the first from the US Congress to "comprehensively detail Russian efforts to undermine democracies since the 2016 [US] presidential election".

AP said the report by Congressional Democrats warns of "deepening Russian interference throughout Europe" - but added that no Republicans on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee signed the report.

The...