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Macedonian deputy prime minister and minister for inter-communal relations Ivan Stoilkovic predicts that "if it goes his way" he could become prime minister of North Macedonia, BGNES reported.
The leader of the Democratic Party of Serbs in North Macedonia sees nothing controversial in his pro-Russian positions.
Asked about criticism of his pro-Putin stance, Stoilkovic said:
"There is nothing controversial. When some TV stations made a campaign (against me) and asked me about it (am I a Putinist), I answered them - why don't you ask about Talat Jaferi's meeting with Kadyrov's people? He did well after the meeting with them, he became prime minister. I said to myself, who knows, it might work out with me. They left the camera and did not want to publish anything from this conversation. So people can speculate, but I am part of the government, I fully accepted Prime Minister Mitkoski's program and I am working in accordance with it."
Stoilkovic told Channel 5 that in recent days negotiations have been held with the Serbian government for four locomotives to be delivered to Macedonian Railways in the next 10-15 days. In return, Serbia will receive old wagons, which it will repair for its own needs.
BGNES reminds that Ivan Stoilkovic is one of the closest politicians in the Balkans to Russian President Vladimir Putin and Serbian Head of State Aleksandar Vucic.
The Macedonian deputy prime minister announced that he would leave North Macedonia if the Bulgarians were included in the constitution, and today he is in charge of inter-community relations. Stoilkovic called the 1995 genocide in Srebrenica, when Bosnian Serbs massacred more than 10,000 Bosnian Muslims, "Disneyland". In October last year, he said that "Skopje has no future without Serbia". The deputy prime minister has personally welcomed every Russian politician who has come to visit North Macedonia, including Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, and has attended all events organised by the Russian embassy in the Macedonian capital.
His daughter, Sandra Stoilkovic, is the "programme coordinator" of the Russian-funded Alexander Gorchakov Fund for Public Diplomacy, which was established with Putin's "blessing". BGNES
