WASHINGTON —
The western Balkan countries are starkly split between the West and Russia, with the once-strong support for European Union accession now shrinking, according to a recent poll by the International Republican Institute.
The results of the February-March poll, which the Washington-based research group conducted in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia, comes as the region faces renewed ethnic tensions amid an EU enlargement slowdown and a rise in pro-Russian sentiment.
The poll found that overwhelming majorities in Albania and Kosovo want their countries to pursue an unequivocally…
