Western Balkan countries like Kosovo and Bosnia
were among the first in Europe to close their borders
and impose strict lockdown measures.
Some did so even before registering
cases of coronavirus because of their ageing populations,
troubled health systems, and a decade of doctors
migrating to richer countries.
So far, cases and deaths have remained relatively low
compared to the rest of Europe.
And there is the prospect of some relaxation of lockdowns.
But even with borders closed foreign powers
have continued to vie for influence
in the western Balkans, which also
includes Serbia and Montenegro.
China and Russia have competed to deliver
masks and protective equipment while Washington has exploited
the crisis in Kosovo to try to inject momentum
into negotiations between Serbia and its former province.
After initially taking a lax approach to the coronavirus,
Serbia imposed one of Europe's toughest crackdowns
with an 86-hour complete lockdown
during the orthodox Easter weekend.
Critics warn the state of emergency declared by President
Aleksandar Vucic has given him the power
to increase his control over the media
and lay the groundwork for a massive electoral victory
once the state of emergency ends.
In the northern city of Novi Sad a journalist
was arrested for writing about the lack of necessary equipment
at a hospital.
The hospital later admitted it was
true but that it had not made it public
to avoid people panicking.
Mr Vucic has also used the crisis
to get closer to Beijing.
In March, he lambasted Brussels, saying
that EU solidarity was a fairytale
and that only China can help.
He thanked Chinese President Xi Jinping
for sending medical experts and planeloads of equipment.
Moscow also tried to capitalise on its relations with Belgrade,
sending military jets with less crucial supplies but receiving
much media attention.
The EU, which has provided grants to Serbia
totaling 3.7 billion euros, was pilloried as slow to respond.
Serbia has spent almost a decade negotiating with its former
province Kosovo, whose independence it still
doesn't recognise.
EU-backed talks have stalled.
But US President Donald Trump has sought
to play a more active role.
He appointed an envoy to the process, ambassador Richard
Grenell, now acting head of US intelligence, who
called for the removal of Kosovo's prime minister, Albin
Kurti, over his intransigence in talks with Belgrade.
Mr Kurti is set to be replaced as premier
and warned that the government's collapse
could make the fight against coronavirus trickier in Kosovo.
The country has so far registered more than 600 cases
and 18 deaths, an indication that the government mobilised
swiftly and coped very well, despite having
a strained health system.
In nearby Bosnia-Herzegovina, the lockdown
conjures up images of the 1992 to 1995 war
and, in the capital Sarajevo, the longest
siege in modern history.
At checkpoints in the borders people
have to be quarantined for two weeks in a massive tent.
Streets are empty.
People are under curfew and have been stockpiling flour
and other essentials.
Many Bosnians say that, during the war, at least
they knew who and where the enemy was while today it's
invisible and omnipresent.
Postwar Bosnia is divided into an unwieldy system.
There's a Bosnian Serb republic and a Muslim-Croat federation,
which is divided into 10 cantons,
meaning the country of 3.3m people has 13 ministries
of health.
Still, the health system, a legacy of former Yugoslavia,
has functioned well with a higher testing rate
than elsewhere in the Balkans.
Some of the success in Bosnia, as elsewhere in the region,
may be due to the low trust many Bosnians have in their state
to protect them, meaning a stricter adherence
to the lockdown and to social distancing rules.
But it may complicate Bosnia's recovery from the virus.
Its divided leaders have squabbled
over how to distribute vital emergency funds from the IMF.
North Macedonia, which was considered
a bright spot in the region for concluding a deal with Greece
on its name, has been thrown into turmoil
due to the pandemic.
Elections planned in April, which
would have seen a fight between leftist reformers
who signed the name deal, with Athens and nationalists
who want to overturn it, have been indefinitely postponed.
The vote was triggered after Brussels
failed to open accession talks to the EU last October.
When North Macedonia finally got the go ahead
from the EU in March to start talks it was to little fanfare
because lockdowns had started.
While all countries in the region
will struggle with the economic recovery,
Croatia, Montenegro, and Albania,
whose Adriatic coastlines collectively host
tens of millions of tourists every year,
will face severe difficulties.
Croatia, which joined the EU in 2013,
is among the countries in the world most reliant
on tourism, up to 18 per cent of its GDP recently.
Its capital Zagreb was also rocked
by the worst earthquake in 140 years in late March
as coronavirus infections grew.
Tiny Montenegro relies on tourism for at least 11
per cent of its GDP.
And economists have predicted a 9 per cent recession
for the country of 600,000 people.
And Albania, which emerged from one of the most
brutal communist dictatorships in the 1990s
and recently got the green light to start EU accession talks,
will also be hard hit.
Tourism accounted for nearly a quarter of GDP.
As some of the lockdowns begin to relax,
observers say that the authoritarian powers
gained in Serbia and elsewhere may outlast the crisis.
And as the EU struggles internally
to cope with the political and economic fallout of a pandemic,
Beijing, Moscow, and Washington will
continue seeking to increase their influence in the region.