The government of North Macedonia, headed by Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski, is at the mercy of Russian-Serbian influence, BGNES reported.
The NATO member state's deputy prime minister is pro-Serb and pro-Kremlin politician Ivan Stoilković, a symbol of the captured Macedonian state. The European Union membership candidate is a bridgehead for a foreign, anti-European geopolitical project. The deputy prime minister participates in government meetings, knows state and military secrets, and at the same time is Moscow's biggest ally.
Stoilković's umbilical cord has long been known, but it turns out that his daughter Sandra is the direct link to the Kremlin and no less influential.
Ivan Stoilković announced that he would leave North Macedonia if the Bulgarians were included in the constitution, and today he is in charge of inter-communal relations. Stoilković called the 1995 Srebrenica genocide, 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.
Sandra Stoilković, on the other hand, is the "programme coordinator" of the Russian-funded Alexander Gorchakov Fund for Public Diplomacy, established with the "blessing" of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Sandra gives a number of speeches at round tables and public meetings. She has also played a major role in the Balkan Dialogue, an event the Fund organizes each year in a different Balkan country where ties with the Russian Federation are highlighted. In practice, however, the Kremlin recruits handymen to spread Russian propaganda in the Balkans.
Unofficially, Sandra Stoilković works in the office of Russian President's press secretary Dmitry Peskov, or at least is close to him and the structures around him.
What are the objectives of the Fund?
The Gorchakov Fund was established by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation by presidential decree of 2 February 2010.
On paper, its mission is to promote development in the field of public diplomacy and the creation of a favorable social, political and business climate for Russia abroad.
Official tasks include conducting social, cultural, educational, scientific and management programs in the field of international relations, analysis of the economic and socio-political situation, participation in the scientific and educational process and the like, but two of these points are particularly interesting:
"promoting the formation of a favorable public opinion of Russia abroad" and "promoting Russia's intellectual, cultural, scientific and business potential abroad."
The Fund can provide grants (funding) for the implementation of initiatives of foreign and international NGOs, journalists and others. Funding political parties is prohibited, at least formally.
Gorchakov's list of priority areas of activity for 2025 includes "maintaining the strategic foundations of interaction between Russia and the Balkan states".
The director of this fund is the daughter of Deputy Prime Minister Stoilković, which means that Russian influence in North Macedonia is not simply channelled indirectly, but rather straight through a member of the Macedonian government.
In a brief interview two years ago, when asked "what does it mean that the Russian embassy has two small buildings in Skopje and the American embassy has a 'whole neighborhood' in the city", Sandra Stoilković replied:
"the fact that the embassy is smaller does not mean that we are less powerful. What matters is how the staff there will do their job."
Moscow-Belgrade-Budapest
There are numerous examples of foreign destructive influence in North Macedonia under VMRO-DPMNE and Hristijan Mickoski.
A few days ago, the Macedonian prime minister called for his Hungarian counterpart Viktor Orban to be declared a Macedonian hero and to receive a state award from Skopje. The reason - Hungary is granting North Macedonia a 500 million euro loan.
Nikola Gruevski, Mickoski's political father, is hiding in Hungary. Gruevski ruled the Republic of Macedonia single-handedly for 10 years (2006-2016). He resigned after mass protests by the thousands and revelations of grave corruption schemes, total control of the judiciary and the media. In late 2017, he fled to Hungary and Viktor Orban's government still refuses to extradite him. Gruevski personally imposed Hristijan Mickoski as leader of VMRO-DPMNE. The latter has never once condemned his predecessor's abuse of power and one-man rule.
Orban's advisor Árpád Habony and similar businessmen have invested heavily in recent years in media close to VMRO-DPMNE. Their narrative is pro-Kremlin and anti-European. I BGNES
