Russia's EU ambassador describes West's statements on Macedonia as unceremonious

Western countries, as well as EU and NATO leaders, prefer not to notice the fact that the referendum in Macedonia on name change has been recognized by the country's election commission as void, Russian Ambassador to the European Union Vladimir Chizhov told journalists on Friday.

"Macedonia's example shows that this is a classical case of unceremonious interference into the internal affairs of a country by the US, European countries, NATO - represented by the secretary general, and EU - represented by its leaders. This gives one an impression that it doesn't even occur to them that this represents interference into internal matters [of another country]," Chizhov said.

"Of course, the settlement of bilateral issues between the two neighboring countries through dialogue is a positive step. Problems between Athens and Skopje have existed for more than 20 years, and over this time, there were many opportunities to resolve them, but those opportunities were missed. However, now it is being done with a concrete goal in mind - to pull Macedonia into NATO as soon as possible. This is what all of this is being done for. The focus is on NATO though because [Macedonia's] path to join the EU will be long and meandering, and we can only talk about it hypothetically at this point," he added.

"Here in Brussels and in other capitals people try not to acknowledge the fact that the referendum was declared void by Macedonia's State Election Commission, emphasizing instead its consultative nature. However, the referendum was all in all illegitimate because in accordance with the Macedonian Constitution, only one question can be posed for a referendum. And there [at the name change referendum], they had three [questions]: on the Prespa Agreement, on acession to the EU and NATO," the ambassador reminded.

"The next step is voting in Macedonia's parliament, where the ruling coalition will not be able to secure enough votes even if they try. A qualified majority of two thirds is necessary. I think that personalized 'educational work' is being conducted now with opposition parliament members," Chizhov concluded.