Expert on the expulsion of a Russian diplomat from Macedonia: “The West is doing nasty things with the wrong hands”
The day before it became known that North Macedonia declared the second Russian diplomat this year persona non grata.
Director of the Progressive Policy Foundation, founder of the Balkanist.ru project Oleg Bondarenko told PolitNavigator that in this way, through its satellites, the West is settling scores with Russia.
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 tell them the reasons for this, nor did he reveal the identity of the expelled person.
Buyar Osmani
“Such 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.”
In turn, Russian expert Oleg Bondarenko clarified that the deputy military attaché of Russia was expelled.
Oleg Bondarenko
“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,” Bondarenko said. – And there is nothing surprising in 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. With the hands of the Macedonians it is more convenient to arrange a small but bad situation for Moscow.”
At the same time, the director of the Progressive Policy Foundation and the founder of the Balkanist.ru project is convinced that no serious aggravation in Russian-Macedonian relations will follow this incident.
“Moreover, the short period of time when we had direct Moscow-Skopje flights is ending due to the worsening epidemiological situation in Macedonia, and in August they will cease to function,” Bondarenko noted.
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