An Eurasian option for the Balkans? Serbia and the Eurasian Economic Union

This research paper will discuss relations between the Serbian decision to join the trade agreement with the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) and the Russian soft power in Serbia. The focus will mainly be on Russian President Vladimir Putin, former Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, and Russian Foreign Affairs Minister Sergey Lavrov. Moreover, part of the analysis will be the official statements of the former Russian ambassador in Belgrade Aleksandar Cepurin, and the current Russian ambassador Aleksandar Bocan-Harcenko. Therefore, the paper aims to analyze dominant political Russian discourses, strategic narratives, and speeches related to Serbia and find elements that could be part of soft power. I have chosen to write on this topic because recent events shape it, and it is relevant for the politics of EU enlargement and future relations in the triangle Russia-Serbia-European Union. Hence, the work grapples with a central analytical question, such as Why did Serbia decide to join the trade agreement with the Eurasian Economic Union? In other words, I intend to dig into the question of how was Russian soft power contributed to and involved in this and how the Russian politicians were fostering economic integration between Serbia and the Eurasian Economic Union. In addition to Russia, EAUE members are Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Armenia, with a market of 183.8 million people and a total GDP of 1.9 trillion US $. The EAEU has so far signed free trade agreements with Iran, Vietnam, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Singapore, China, Ukraine, and Moldova while still negotiating similar agreements with Egypt, India, and Israel. I will tackle the issue using Joseph Nye’s soft power theory and approach Alexander Wendt’s social constructivist theory from an international relations perspective. The paper will look at the main features of the Russian soft power in Serbia in the months of negotiating economic cooperation and just before signing the agreement mentioned above. As a methodology tool, it will use the content analysis of speeches, interviews, and author’s texts in Serbian newspapers. It will use this qualitative method because it is appropriate for this kind of research question. The sources will be based on online articles from Politika, Večernje novosti, RTS, Danas, Sputnik, N1, and Srbija danas. In this work, I will limit the analysis to 2019, when the agreement was signed.