DEMOCRACY AND ITS ABUSE - MALIGNANT INFLUENCES ON SERBIA'S FOREIGN POLICY AND SECURITY ORIENTATION

Abstract

The marginal areas of Europe can threaten the legal, economic, and democratic achievements of the European Union. Conflicts, crises, and extreme political options affect political and democratic trends in Europe. The Western Balkans' approach to European and Euro-Atlantic integration affects the EU's stability and democracy. Russia maintains the Western Balkans as a potential hotbed of crises that drain democratic resources and relativize the political achievements of the EU. A paper analyzes Russia's hybrid forms of action towards the countries of the Western Balkans. Russia seeks to expand its area of influence through Serbia's media, energy, and political influence. Russia encourages Serbia's frustrations to stop its European integration and distance it from cooperation with NATO. These findings should generate a broader horizon of the national interest of transforming the Balkans into a region of stability and prosperity, which would achieve the strengthening of the general values, political and democratic achievements of the EU.