[Cronos]

Note that in 1912 at the time of the Balkan wars, Bulgaria established itself as a strong power -- it nearly captured Constantinople -- this alarmed the Russians who wanted Constantinople with it's command of the Bosphorus, for themselves

In 1914 also, the British sold two modern destroyers/first class naval ships to the Turks -- this was a big alarm to the Russians as this threatened Russia's bases in the Black Sea

Remember that Russia and Turkey were/are mortal enemies for centuries

Also, the Russian war preparation and conscription was humming and this alarmed the Germans -- who saw Russia as a massive threat. Well, this was the Prussian's fault for allowing the partition of the Polish-Lithuanian commonwealth -- even a weakened buffer state is better than no buffer state.

The Rzeczpospolita in the 18th century was a puppet of the Russians that is true, but it was a good buffer between the Russians and the Germanics (Prussians and Austrians).

Before its destruction the Austrians and the Russians were actually allies as they had a common enemy -- the Turks

After the partitions, Austria now had TWO enemies to the east.

[rmlew]

German, Russia and Austria were allied from 1873 until 1887. The lunacy of Kaiser Wilhelm II, and the scramble to claim Ottoman occupied Slavic lands killed it.