I heard on Youtube (channel NowThis, video "Can Kosovo survive as an independent state?") that Russia prevents Kosovo from joining the UN because Russia backs Serbia, and Serbia doesn't want Kosovo to be independent.

So what's in it for Russia?

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    Ethnic solidarity and influence – Colin Apr 18 '17 at 22:00
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    To add to @ColinZwanziger's answer, these are the same reasons that were the immediate causes of WWI. Russia was on Serbia's side against the Austro-Hungarian Empire which for the same reasons was backed by the German Empire and then the dominoes "came tumbling down". – Bernard Massé Apr 18 '17 at 23:04
  1. Chechnya and Russia's multi-ethnic confederated nature.

    Russia hates the idea of independence movements and especially their success/recognition, given it is itself a confederation of ethnic areas some of which aren't all to happy to be in the confederation. The main parallel is Chechnya - which is also a rebellious Muslim-majority province trying to gain independence.

    As such, recognition of Kosovo would create a precedence for such independence movements.

    (yadda yadda Ukraine yadda yadda Georgia. Russia gets Gold Medal in hypocricy Olympics, which doesn't invalidate the reason above).

  2. It's popular with Russians.

    Russians are extremely xenophobic and partial to tribalism. That works on smaller Russian scale but also slightly larger Slavic scale. As such any support for brother Slavs plays well with russian populace; especially when Pindostan (Russian's insulting term for USA) is on the opposition's side.

  3. Somewhat related to #2, historical entanglements.

    Russia's backing of Serbia isn't exactly a new development - previously, a less-known conflict involving Serbia got Russia involved in certain unpleasantness with a couple of other countries on European continent.

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    Could you cite sources for your answer? It sounds more like informed opinion than provable fact. – BobTheAverage Apr 19 '17 at 2:44
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    Russia hates the idea of independence movements Huh ? What about Crimea, Dombass, southern Ossetia, Abkhazia, Transsynistria ? Those are all independant movement which are backed up by Russia. It might be "hypocrit", but it's a fact Russia loves independance movements when those are on Russia's side. – Bregalad Apr 19 '17 at 10:04
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    @Bregalad see the bracket below that statement. Although I'd say Russia is "competing" for that medal, rather than winning it outright (cough lets bomb civilians in the war on terror cough). – Peter Apr 19 '17 at 10:08
  • I think you can replace "larger slavic scale" by "larger slavic orthodox christian scale". Most people in the balkan are slavic and do not enjoy Russian "symathy" (Croatians, Bulgarians, ...). Plenty of other slavic nations do not have strong ties to Russia (Poland, Slovakia, ...). – user5751924 Apr 19 '17 at 12:20
  • @user5751924 - good point – user4012 Apr 19 '17 at 12:25

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