Word: balkans
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Massive infusions of Russian capital, raw materials and technology are pushing Bulgaria into the industrial age. A major reason for Bulgaria's windfall lies in its geographic position. The only trustworthy Soviet satellite in the Balkan Peninsula, Bulgaria is bordered by relatively independent Rumania, maverick Yugoslavia, and two NATO member states, Greece and Turkey. Expanding Soviet interest in the nearby Middle East and Mediterranean has given this 43,000-sq. mi. enclave new strategic importance. Although the Kremlin is so confident of Bulgarian loyalty that no Russian troops are stationed there, the Soviets have deployed "Frog" and "Skud" ground...
Everyone who plays against Nastase usually is. Early in the match, Ilie began to get on Ashe's nerves by protesting the linesmen's eyesight and judgment with baroque Balkan-and some internationally known-gestures. Irked by a footfault call, he dropped his racket in disbelief. Later, convinced that a service linesman had robbed him on an out call, Nastase threw a towel toward the official and whacked a ball at him. Such unseemly pique drew boos from the crowd and a rebuke from Ashe, who complained to the umpire...
...more volatile and troublesome minority than the Croats of Yugoslavia. Dour and resentful, they have felt themselves second-class citizens in their own land for a thousand years, first under the Ottoman and Austro-Hungarian empires, and more recently under Yugoslavia's more numerous Serbs.* As a result, says Balkan Historian Dennison I. Rusinov, the Croats "have a case of permanent national paranoia," which has made Croatia a center of conflict and division at home, and a source of violent agitation for nearly every European country that has imported Yugoslav workers...
...turn Croatian nationalism to their own account, in hopes of bringing Yugoslavia back under Moscow's control after Tito passes from the scene. But for the short run, the Soviets could well have a different aim in mind: to prevent the Croats from striking too many sparks in the Balkan powder keg, thus endangering progress toward detente in Europe...
Many Yugoslavs believe that Brezhnev, with an eye toward his pet project, a European Security Conference, may have prevailed upon the Bulgarians to make a few concessions in the interests of Balkan amity. What worries the Yugoslavs is that once the conference is held the Soviets will return to their old game of permitting the Bulgarians to harass Yugoslavia over the Macedonian question...