Rather than wait until after the elections, Serbia’s already signed that gas pipeline deal with Russia, effectively scuppering the EU-backed alternative.

Now we’re going to end up with a president of Russia, Medvedev, who’ll not only be the former head of Gazprom (the company that controls 97% of Russia’s vast gas reserves, and has shown no compunction about using threats of supply cut-offs to gain political advantage – or to act on them) but also have complete dominance of the supply chain through to continental Europe.

Time for Europe to say bye bye to independence.