Russophilia

Russia is hugely popular in Serbia, and Serbs have always traditionally seen Russia as a close ally due to shared Slavic culture and Orthodox faith.[2] In Serbia and Montenegro, whose nations are both predominately Eastern Orthodox, the faith expressed by a vast majority of Russians, there was no Soviet influence and Russians were always seen as friendly brotherly people. About 83% of Serbs see Russia as their first ally on the international scene. In both Serbia and Montenegro, there are neighbourhoods, streets, buildings and statues named after something Russian. In Serbia there is the Russian Centre of Science and Culture and a Hotel Moskva.

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  Russian Center of Science and Culture (Belgrade)
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  Dmitry Medvedev in National Assembly of Serbia
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  Russian Orthodox Church in Tašmajdan park, Belgrade
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  Vladimir Putin at Belgrade's Red Star Stadium in March 2011
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  Vladimir Putin in front of Cathedral of Saint Sava

Montenegro is also an Eastern Orthodox and Slavic country. There is the Moscow Bridge[3] in Podgorica, and a statue of Russian singer and actor Vladimir Vysotsky next to the bridge.

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  Moscow Bridge, Podgorica

Pro-Russian separatists in Donetsk, eastern Ukraine

Following Ukrainian independence in 1991 Ukrainians, mostly in the east and south of the country, voted to a see a more Russophile attitude of the government, ranging from closer economic partnership to full national union.[4] Russia and Ukraine enjoyed especially close economic ties, while the Russophilic political party, the Party of Regions, became the largest party in the Verkhovna Rada in 2006. It would remain a dominant force in Ukrainian politics, until the 2014 Ukrainian Revolution. Following the 2014 Russian military intervention in Ukraine, the overall attitude of Ukrainians towards Russia and Russians has become much more negative.[5]

Russophilia (Moscophilia, Ukrainian: москвофільство, moskvofil’stvo) was a linguistic, literary and socio-political movement in the Western Ukrainian territories of Galicia, Transcarpathia, and Northern Bukovina in the 18th – 20th centuries. Proponents of this movement believed in linguistic, cultural, social union with Russian people and later in state union with Russia. Among the causes for the emergence of this phenomenon were the absence of Ukrainian statehood, centuries of foreign oppression, fragmented Ukrainian territories and dispersed population, as well as the defection of national elite to neighbouring cultures and a weak sense of national identity.

The first instances of Russophilia in Transcarpathia date back as far as late 18th early 19th centuries when several famous Russians with ties to the government and the court of the tsar settled there. Such famous scientists and social activists as I. Orlai, M. Baludiansky, P. Lodiy and others lived in Transcarpathia and maintained close ties with the country of their birth and thereby promoted interest towards Russia, especially towards its cultural life, its language and literature.

When Galicia and Bukovina were incorporated into the Habsburg Empire in 1772 the Austrian government treated the Ukrainian population of these territories with suspicion as it was afraid it was susceptible to Russian influence due to the closeness of Ukrainian and Russian languages and cultures. This mistrust of the authorities was cultivated by influential Polish politicians and activists in an effort to forestall the growth of national consciousness on territories where Poles traditionally had influence. Any attempt at cultural revival was met with hostility from the Austrian government which regarded them as an influence from Moscow. In spite of this atmosphere of mistrust and suspicion the first educational establishment "The Fellowship of Priests" was founded in Przemyśl. Metropolitan M. Levytsky began to introduce the Ruthenian language in elementary schools, developed grammar books, insisted on instruction in University in Ruthenian and founded "Ruska Troyka" Society. The Lemko-Rusyn Republic, after World War I, attempted to join Lemko territories to Russia, and later to similar areas of the newly formed Czechoslovakia.