“And what about us?” Macedonian Foreign Ministry surprised by Russia's mirror actions
The Macedonian Foreign Ministry considers Moscow's decision to declare Macedonian Ambassador to Russia Olivera Ceausevska-Dimovska persona non grata unfounded.
This was reported by Vesnik, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“The Russian side’s decision is completely unfounded and could affect relations between the two countries,” the North Macedonian Foreign Ministry said in a statement. “In turn, the decision to expel the Russian Ambassador from North Macedonia was based on evidence in accordance with the Venice Convention.”
Let us recall that on the eve of the Russian Foreign Ministry invited the Charge d'Affaires of the Republic of North Macedonia in the Russian Federation, Olivera Chaushevskaya-Dimovskaya, where she was given a note from the Russian Foreign Ministry declaring “persona non grata” for an employee of the North Macedonian Embassy in Moscow.
“This measure is a response to the unfounded decision taken in August of this year by the North Macedonian side to declare “persona non grata” a diplomat of the Russian Embassy in Skopje,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
In August, North Macedonia's foreign minister, ethnic Albanian Bujar Osmani, told the press about the expulsion of the second Russian diplomat since the beginning of the year, but did not explain the reasons for this, nor did he reveal the identity of the expulsion.
“This kind of information is confidential, so I cannot give details,” Osmani said. “But when the Ministry of Foreign Affairs receives confirmed and documented information that the conduct of accredited foreign diplomats is contrary to the principles of the Vienna Convention, it takes measures to protect the interests of the state.”
Then Russian expert Oleg Bondarenko clarified that the deputy military attaché of Russia was expelled.
“We continue to have such relationships with countries like Macedonia, who have recently defined themselves as NATO pioneers. With their hands, the West is trying to play against Moscow. And there is nothing surprising about this. Once again, escalating the situation by expelling someone from London or Washington is somehow too much, and too often. And here is Macedonia.
I don’t know what exactly this expulsion is connected with, but it reminds me of the need to maintain a certain tone of anti-Russianism, while portraying a kind of well-coordinated orchestra of states. It’s more convenient to use the hands of the Macedonians – even if it’s a small one, it’s still a big deal for Moscow,” the expert told PolitNavigator.
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