Russia-Yugoslavia relations (22nd Century and On)

Russia-Yugoslavia relations (Russian: Отношения Россия-Югославия, Serbo-Croatian: Руско-Југославенски односи, Rusko-Jugoslavenski odnosi) are the political relations between the Federated States of Yugoslavia and the Russian Federation.

Russia and Yugoslavia are one of the closest of allies, primarily as both nations are driven by Slavic nationalism. Moscow supported the re-unification of Yugoslavia, and the Russian military sent supplies to the military of the newly re-united Yugoslavia, as well as sending them nukes as gifts.

Yugoslavia is a member of the Union State of Eurasia. In addition, the Russian Navy also has foreign bases in Yugoslavia, members of its Balkan Fleet.

As Russia is considered the land of immigrants in Eastern Europe, there are 130,422 Yugoslavians in Russia, with 30,520 being foreign students and the rest being expatriates, while there are 101,310 Russians in Yugoslavia, with the majority being foreign students and the rest expatriates.

On an economic note, Yugoslavia relies on Russia for natural gas, oil and minerals, while Russia relies on Yugoslavia for sugar and crops.

History
Modern-day relations between Russia and Yugoslavia are a complete opposite of their First Cold War counterparts, in which Soviet-Yugoslav relations were practically non-existent, hostile and nearly led to an actual hot conflict between the two communist powers.

For much of the period between the fall of the Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union, up to Yugoslavia's re-unification, Russian relations in the Balkans were limited to friendly relations with Serbia alone, whilst maintaining neutral relations with the other Balkan states. During World War III, Turkey invaded Bulgaria as part of its "conquest of Europe". At this point, the Bulgarian military force-withdrew the country from NATO, siezed all NATO military equipment in Bulgaria and imprisoned NATO troops. President Rumen Radev was overthrown in a military coup led by Minister of Defence Krasimir Karakachanov for national treason, and sent to a gulag in Russia.

The Bulgarian forces were not equipped for the might of the Turkish invasion, and were pushed all the way east, despite fighting valiantly. Bulgarian troops at that point of the war, limited their operations to civilian evacuation operations. Of about 8 million people, the Bulgarian troops evacuated an estimated 3 million. At this point, Bulgarian government was forced to exile into Serbia. Since Russia was dealing with the invasion on its own homefront, it could only send limited aid.

In Serbia, the Serbian and Bulgarian armies performed joint-exercises. Moscow supported them by sending supplies as reinforcements. Serbian, Bulgarian and Russian officers worked together to stage the offensives to take back Bulgaria. Russian air forces conducted some bombing campaigns in Bulgaria, although deadly and often-not, successful. Their air-dropped supplies to Bulgarian guerrillias, and guided Bulgarian guerrillia attacks against Turkey.

While in exile in Serbia, the interim president Karakachanov proclaimed that Bulgaria would "never again" enter the western zone of influence, and would remain within the Russian zone of influence.

The governments of Belgrade and Sofia-in-exile both formed the Balkan Federation, with Serbia providing much of the armaments. Once the tripartite coalition stepped back into western Bulgaria, they fought off the Turkish forces. With Russia successfully repelling the Turkish invasion from its own homeland, it was finally free to send more supplies and aid to the Balkan Federation's forces. The Russians sent massive aerial blitzkriegs against Turkish formations in Bulgaria.

Vladimir Bodrožić, a Serbian military officer and avid pan-Yugoslav nationalist, overthrew Aleksandar Vučić as president of Serbia, calling him a "coward". Bodrožić also took control and became the Leader of the Balkan Federation. Bodrožić and Vladimir Putin signed the Russo-Balkan Deal or the "Vladimir Deal", allowing Russia to supply the Balkan Federation. Bodrožić also promised that members of the Balkan Federation would be full-pledged members of the Union State once victory was achieved.

Overtime, the other former Yugoslav republics, such as Croatia, Bosnia and Macedonia, all made concentrated efforts to help the Balkan Federation with Bodrožić's convincing. They overthrew their respective pro-NATO governments and installed pan-Yugoslav and pro-Russia leaders. It as this point when the seeds of reunification of Yugoslavia began to grow.

Upon the re-unification of Yugoslavia, the Russian government sent its newly-formed armed forces supplies, such as nukes and rocket weapons. Russia also helped Yugoslavia invade Albania, and install a Yugoslavia-friendly leader in Albania, which completed Albania's entry into Yugoslavia.

After the Balkan Federation defeated the Turkish invasion, Vladimir Bodrožić, as well as the presidents of the other former Yugoslav republics, as well as the now Yugoslav-friendly Albania met in Belgrade to discuss the terms of re-unification. They would also discuss the terms of the new currency.

On April 27, 2022, the presidents of Serbia, Macedonia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia, Montenegro and Albania signed the Belgrade Accords, declaring Yugoslavia a fully-functioning and re-united nation. Bodrožić, as the President of Yugoslavia, entered it into the Union State, allowing it to fully become under the Russian zone of influence.

The entry of Albania, Kosovo, Bosnia and Croatia into Yugoslavia caused some citizens to rebel, with the fiercest and deadliest being in Albania and Kosovo with Islamist-driven separatists who opposed entry into Yugoslavia. The Yugoslav forces, along with Russian contingent support, put these uprisings down. To make way for the building for T-14 Armata tanks, the Russians sold over 300 T-72b tanks to the Yugoslav forces.

While much of Yugoslavia's military production came from Serbia, the Russian government helped fund its military with monetary means, but also supplied it with nukes.

On the first anniversary of its re-unification, Vladimir Putin sent Yugoslavia $452 million USD for gold, silver, gems and other precious metals and minerals as gifts, mined from Siberia.