Russian Embassy and Appointment of Serbian Metropolitan to Uskub

The death of the Greek Metropolitan Methodius of Uskub in 1896 provoked Bulgarians, Greeks, Serbs and Romanians to start again their struggle for the influence in Macedonia, which unfolded in the center of concentration of national propaganda — Uskub (Skopje). On the one hand, Russia sought to prevent a disruption of the balance of power in Macedonia. On the other hand, Russia was helping Serbs to appoint a Serbian metropolitan to the vacant see, considering it politically advantageous to support Serbs at that moment. So, for several years, the Uskub case, or the Firmilian case, was in the focus of attention of the Russian diplomacy in Constantinople and it came off well with the victory of Serbs helped by Russian diplomacy.