Moscow is not pleased. After Macedonia joined the so-called "Coalition of the Willing," the Russian ambassador in Skopje, Dmitry Zikov, came out with a sharp reaction: the step, he says, "can in no way be called friendly," and with it Macedonia has taken on "very serious anti-Russian obligations."

The coalition, formed in January in Paris with 35 member states, has been targeted by Russian diplomacy as an "openly anti-Russian project" and a "party of war." Zikov repeated a familiar Russian threat: any deployment of coalition military contingents in Ukraine would constitute foreign intervention and would make those units legitimate military targets. A message that, wrapped in diplomatic language, still rings like a warning.

There is an intriguing detail in the timing, too: Bulgaria withdrew from the coalition in July, the same month Macedonia and Moldova joined. As some walk out, others walk in - and the Balkans, as so many times in history, again find themselves on the line between the big blocs, forced to pick a side in someone else's reckoning.

The Russian statement also stresses that "the majority of citizens" hold a positive view of Russia, and that taking part in the escalation runs against the country's interests. It is a classic rhetorical move - to split the people from their own state, and to suggest the government is doing something "ordinary people" do not want. Whether that is truly the case, or just a convenient diplomatic formulation, is a question neither Moscow nor Skopje answers honestly.

What remains is the fact: Macedonia made a clear geopolitical choice, and Russia does not forget that easily. Where that choice leads - toward faster Euro-Atlantic integration or just one more front of strained relations - time will tell. The Balkans know this scene by heart.