Actually the Kosovo & Albania pipeline deal is ours -- the projects are called AMBO and Nabucco. The Russian deal is with Serbia, proper, and its called Southstream.
But you are right in that Russia is one of the players now -- but back when all this started in the Balkans in the 1990's, Russia couldn't tie its own shoes.
I thank you for your courteous discussion -sometimes absent on this site-and will close by saying I hope the predictions were alarmist,and that nothing untoward comes of them.
Like most Westerners, what I don’t know about this powderkeg could fill a library.
I’ll keep an eye out for any of your future posts !