WI: GREECE falls into Russian Sphere

There was always a lot of jockying for influence in Greece between France, Russia and Great Britain. They were partly in each of their spheres for the 19th century, and Britain's support for the Turks didn't help things in that regard.

What do you mean by in their sphere, and when? The two countries were quite close up to the Balkan Wars, and even after that until the Russian Revolution.
 
Greece would have a more active role in the Russo-Turkish war of 1877-8, and probably be granted some new territories...but something like OTL's Congress of Berlin might end up taking most of that away.
 
There was (and is) a very strong pro-Russian element in the collective Greek psyche and occasionally in the political scene, but it has never been able to achieve dominance. The reason is twofold: one, pro-Russian sentiments were and are usually held by traditionalists and populist conservatives, not by the Western-educated and Western-oriented elites that have ruled the country for most of its history, and second and most important, Greece, especially until the Balkan Wars but even after that, was a country that was wholly in the mercy of whomever controlled the Mediterranean, and that country was Britain (and the US post-1947). The one time were it even looked as if Greece would join forces with Russia against the common Ottoman foe, during the Crimean War, the British and French promptly occupied the Piraeus and held it hostage until war's end. As long as the Royal Navy has the Greek capital within range of its guns, and as long as it remains British policy to oppose Russian expansion, an overtly pro-Russian Greece is impossible.
 
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