Pervasive state capture vulnerabilities have made Southeast European countries susceptible to foreign malign influence from Russia and China. The Kremlin, in particular, has underpinned its centuries-old soft power presence in countries across the Balkans with large-scale corruptive energy projects. All this has reinforced Kremlin's media capture in the region, combining essentially all four of its known aspects: ownership, advertising and financial pressure, government censorship, and cognitive capture.