it's all games of interests, a country has to choose who's it is gonna be closer to. serbs are romanticizing russia too much in my opinion, while not taking into consideration what can russia offer to them and vice versa. just because russians were close to you in the past or even now, is it beneficial to you though? i understand having reservations towards the west, but can serbia really resist western political pressure and compete with them in terms of quality of life? if not it's best to try and work closer with the west while still maintaining good ties with russia. croatia has its reasons why it was closer to the germans/austrians in 20th century, but it was to our benefit and it kinda is to this day, though germany is a decaying power so even those ties come into question. all i know is shit is fucked up and unfair, and russo ukrainian war is making things much more difficult.
Croatia