The Russian's wanted Constantinople. While the eventual transfer of territory happened in the Caucuses much of the heaviest fighting and the political focus was on the European part of the Ottoman Empire. It was and is the seat of the ecumenical patriarch of Constantinople, the first amongst equals of the Orthodox church and the Russians, as Orthodox believers wanted to conquer it back form the Turks. Also, Russia was founded on the rhetoric that it was the "Third Rome" using the logic of "Translatio Imperii" (transfer of authority) from Rome to Constantinople to Moscow. At the time the Ottoman empire was in the process of unravelling. Nationalism in its Balkan provinces was proving highly problematic, Egypt was lost to them and the Ottoman heartland was not governed effectively, with power decentralised to local strongmen called Beys. Further the Ottomans had not effectively westernised and while several attempts had been made the process would not be complete by the time of the Empires fall in 1918. Together, these came under the umbrella of the Panslavic movement. The idea was that all "slavic" peoples should be put into one country and the Russians thought that that government should be theirs, as they were the third Rome. Further, they thought that they had a unique opportunity because of the collapse of Ottoman power and probably would have succeeded had the British not propped up the Ottomans, intervening militarily with the French and Piedmont-Sardinia during the Crimean war.

As mentioned before nationalism was becoming a problem in the Balkans and the Ottomans in an attempt to maintain order sent in irregular units called the Bashi-bazouks to restore order. They did so in exceptionally brutal fashion, outraging opinion throughout Europe, Gladstone for instance wrote a best selling pamphlet on the subject, but especially in Russia where painings like this one publicised their atrocities. The Russians were also upset at the treatment of Orthodox pilgrim to Jerusalem and the hold places.

At the beginning of the war the Russians made quick progress both in the caucuses and Rumelia. However, they encountered stiff resistance at Plevna and were unable to advance further. This was not helped by the fact that it appeared that the Dual Monarchy had broken a treaty of non interference (the DreiKaiserBund) and had moved a sizeable army to the Austro-Hungarian/Russian border and looked poised to strike. At the same time the British sent a fleet of battleships to Constantinople to deter the Russians from entering the city. The Russians, fearing intervention by the other great powers came to terms at San Stefano and Bulgaria was created, under Russian influence, with ports on the Mediterranean sea. This seriously alarmed the British, who feared that this would compromise the Suez Canal and the route to India, and a new congress was organised at Berlin where Disraeli (British Prime Minister) Lord Salisbury (future Prime Minister) and Bismarck succeeded in shrinking Bulgaria so that it had no deep water ports. The Ottoman empire continued to exist, although it was on British life support and a relatively strong Russian showing obscured domestic and military problems which would be brought to light by the First World War.