Serbia and Russia: Slavic Brothers Always

Here's an interesting story from NPR. The Russians want to put a gas pipeline through Serbia. Apparently, many Serbians "welcome" Gazprom's bid to own a controlling interest in Serbian state gas and oil. Since the mid-nineteenth century, Serbs and Russians have cultivated "pan-Slavic" nationalism. More recently, the Russians supported Serbia during the Yugoslav war and during the NATO bombing of Belgrade in 1999.
There's no doubt that this move will serve to strengthen Russia's geo-political position in Europe even as it strengthens Serbia's legitimacy in the Balkans. In recent years, both the Russians and Serbians have felt that Americans and Western Europeans have misused and misunderstood them. There's little doubt that such feelings will drive them to work more closely with one another.