Russia has drawn up a ranking of its enemies - literally, with ordinal numbers - and four Balkan countries have ended up on it. If you think the region is too small to enter the big geopolitical calculations, this list says otherwise.

The Russian analytical portal that published the "ranking of hostile governments" put Germany in first place, followed by Latvia, with Britain and Estonia sharing third. Then come France, and a group of countries in fifth place - Poland, Finland, the Czech Republic and Sweden. The US, usually imagined as Moscow's main adversary, is only seventh, alongside Belgium, Denmark, Spain and Italy.

And where is the Balkans? Greece is ninth, and in tenth place, shared, are Bulgaria, Luxembourg, Slovenia and Croatia. So four countries from our immediate neighbourhood are officially entered into Russia's book of "enemies" - which isn't just symbolism, but a message about how Moscow reads the region.

The reason for the raised tensions, according to Russian analyst Alexei Nechaev, is not individual military exercises or the leaders' sharp statements, but something more lasting: "prepared headquarters, well-coordinated cooperation mechanisms, new infrastructure and military skills". In other words, Moscow isn't afraid of a single event, but of the system being built around its borders - exercises like "Ramstein Flag" with 18 participating countries, the "Baltops" naval manoeuvres and others.

For the reader, it's worth asking here: what does it mean to be on such a list? For big states, it's part of the game of powers. For small countries like those in the Balkans, being entered into someone else's register of enemies rarely brings benefit, and often means you've become a pawn in a reckoning that isn't yours. Someone else drew up the list - but the consequences, if it escalates, are shared equally by everyone on it.