Despite these valiant efforts, the fate of Bulgaria didn't really rest with the Bulgarians themselves. The gradual stagnation of Ottoman power in Europe had raised the problem - dubbed the " Eastern Question " by contemporary politicians and journalists - of who would profit from the empire's demise. The main contenders in the area were Austria-Hungary and tsarist Russia, the latter nursing a long-standing ambition to extend its influence as far south as Constantinople and thereby gain control of the Bosphorus. Both the French and the British were horrified by the prospect, and tended to support Turkey in order to frustrate Russian expansion. The British establishment was notoriously hostile to any Bulgarian aspirations that involved Russian backing, with Queen Victoria herself remarking that the Bulgarian people "hardly deserved the name of real Christians". In the cynical environment of Great Power diplomacy, the aspirations of the nationalities languishing under Ottoman rule counted for little.

The Russians exploited the ideology of Pan-Slavism - the belief that Slav peoples everywhere should be freed from foreign domination and united under the authoritarian guidance of the Russians - in order to stir up anti-Ottoman sentiment in the Balkans and exert control over the liberation movements thus produced. It was therefore taken for granted by Russia's opponents that any future Bulgarian state would merely be a vehicle for the Balkan ambitions of its big Slav brother. However, the Western powers found it difficult to give the Turks their unqualified support: public opinion in the West was often deeply sympathetic to the demands of the Ottoman Empire's Christian subjects - of which Russia fancied itself to be the protector.

Russian troops had temporarily expelled the Ottomans from parts of Bulgaria during the 1810-11 and 1828-29 Russo-Turkish wars , but were consistently unwilling to provoke the Western powers by pressing their advantage in the region too far. Britain and France had even laid siege to Russia's Black Sea ports in the Crimean War of 1854-56 in order to demonstrate their support for the Ottoman Empire - which they hoped would survive in its present form if only they could persuade it to introduce "reforms".