Between Russia and the EU: Europe’s Arc of Instability, the Western Balkans

Concerning!

Was it a smart move by the EU and the US support these states to eventually become members of the EU? Certainly these ambitions do not please Putin the Terribly. Probably this move was more of a unnecessary provocation than anything else.

Probably, at this point and as long as Putin the Terrible is in office close cooperation with Western countries and neutrality status for the group of in-between states would have been more advisable!

"The war in Ukraine has left a group of “in-between” European countries more vulnerable and insecure than ever before. These countries—Armenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Moldova, and Serbia ...
All of these in-between states are outside of the European Union and NATO, but are building stronger ties with the EU: several are prospective members of the union. They also maintain many connections with Russia, and are home to pro-Russian political forces and business interests. Many still buy Russian gas. Armenia is a member of two Russian-led institutions—the Eurasian Economic Union and (for now, at least) the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO)—but is in the process of reevaluating the utility of membership in these organizations. 

Since 2022, the EU and the United States [the senile, demented and corrupt 46th President] have deployed substantial new political and economic resources to support these in-between states. The EU has relaunched its enlargement process, which had been stalled since 2013, and given candidate status to Moldova, Ukraine, and (more conditionally) Georgia—something that would have been unthinkable a little more than two years ago. It has set up the European Union Mission in Armenia (EUMA) to monitor the border, the first such mission in a country that is a member of the Russia-led CSTO. Moldova is being weaned off of its dependence on Russian gas. ..."

Between Russia and the EU: Europe’s Arc of Instability - Carnegie Endowment for International Peace Armenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Moldova, and Serbia are caught in between Russia and the EU, building ties with the latter even as the former seeks to maintain influence there and deter the West.