Russia showed a consistent interest in the Balkans starting from the acquisition of Malorossia
during the reign of Ekaterina the Great (XVIII century).
The reason was the rise of large-scale commercial grain production in South Russia. The Balkans were considered as an antechamber to the Straits, the critical bottleneck on the export route to European markets. The preoccupation of Czars was the ability of the Ottoman Turkey, our constant strategic rival, to lock our fleet in the Black Sea. Hence the slogans “The Cross above Hagia Sofia” and the rhetorics of Slav brotherhood in the Balkans.
Picture below shows a Russian WWI poster “Chat in the vicinity of Istanbul”. The Straits were much more prominent as the explanation of the war’s objective to the populace than the liberation of Slav brothers from the Austro-Hungarian yoke.
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