Fact checkers traced the path of Russian disinformation on Zelenskyy, his family and inner circle
A new study by an international team of fact-checkers, led by Maldita.es, traced the path of Russian disinformation about Zelensky, his family, and those in his inner circle. The disinformation traveled from fake news portals and small YouTube channels, through X profiles (formerly Twitter),...
American HIMARS sparks Russian nuclear propaganda
A chain reaction of Russian high-level officials was triggered by the delivery and operational deployment of long-range Western missile systems used by the U.S. and Germany. At the beginning of June 2024, a Ukrainian Member of Parliament confirmed to CNN that the Ukrainian military...
How did the paths of Macedonian Todorovski and Russian propaganda agent Kureyev cross?
Bloomberg published recent insights from documents revealing that Russian agent Artem Kureyev led a Russian influence campaign in Europe, managing to contact the Macedonian Darko Todorovski. They agreed on a payment of 300 Euros to write articles in two publications. Their correspondence included instructions...
Inconsistency and hypocrisy of Russian foreign policy towards Macedonians
The Russian Embassy in Skopje congratulated our citizens on the holiday “Ss. Cyril and Methodius”, generally describing them as Slav educators. The greetings of the Russian Embassy in Sofia, however, described them as Bulgarian, which was not accepted well in our country. The Russian...
The EU disinformation trends mirrored in our country
Recently, similar disinformation has been circulating both in EU member states and in our country. Most of the April fact-checks in our country and the EU referred to disinformation related to the EU and the war that Russia is fighting in Ukraine. In our...
Navalny’s death overshadowed Moscow’s disinformation on the military campaign in Ukraine
Despite this February marking the second anniversary since the start of Ukraine’s suffering at the hands of Russian aggression, which has resulted in thousands of casualties and never-ending destruction of everything significant for Ukraine and Ukrainians, Moscow’s disinformation campaign in regard to its military...
Emotional ties and propaganda: The Russian “Soft power” in the Balkans
Russian media Sputnik and RT (Russia Today) Balkans operating in Serbia, are used as propaganda tools by Putin’s Russia and represent Russian “soft power” in the region. This propaganda from Moscow, disseminated through the contents published by both Russian media outlets and republished by...
Geopolitical analysis: Foreign malign disinformation destabilizes the Western Balkans
Disinformation and fake news are not just a media problem, but a security problem. They destabilize the countries of Western Balkans, including North Macedonia, undermining the trust in democratic institutions and hindering the realization of their most important strategic objectives.
This is the general conclusion...
The Bots Must be Crazy – Super special, fans and haters
Printscreen from the online campaign for positive promotion of the party bots in Serbia | Source: Instagram profile of Aleksandar Vučić
Someone is a proud political party bot, while another is praising the party leader and attacking his opponents, under the threat of losing his/her...
The Russian Embassy in Skopje – Main Diplomatic Internet Spammer in North Macedonia
The Russian Embassy in Skopje is a record-breaker when it comes to the number of Facebook posts. The country is of top regional interest of Kremlin – out of the whole Balkans, only the Russian diplomatic mission in Romania posts more frequently on Facebook....
China as an example: Media promotion of the undemocratic value system
One of the significant negative influences in North Macedonia that most frequently is entirely overlooked, is the influence of China. This influence becomes even greater in conditions of great corruption in the country, decreased trust of the citizens in the institutions and their ability...
Behind the scenes: Chinese influence in North Macedonia
(Main photo: Commercial for the Belt and Road Initiative in one of the Macedonian trains purchased from China reading “Speed up the Belt initiative, Charming Macedonia")
It took North Macedonia only a few years to dramatically change its bilateral relationship with China. In 1999, it...
Zero benefits for Albania from China’s Belt and Road Initiative
In 2017, Albania signed a cooperation agreement with China in the framework of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). It was conceived as an attempt to enhance bilateral cooperation in the areas of infrastructure, production capacity, tourism, and agriculture. Six years later, very little...
The state of online free expression worldwide in 2022
"From internet shutdowns, crackdowns on expression and closed-door partnerships to attempts to restrict anonymity and end to end encryption, in many places, digital rights are under threat," writes IFEX.org in this article republished by Meta.mk. This statement was originally published by the IFEX member Electronic...
Мacedonian and Bulgarian university with a historic Russian connection will “produce” MAs in Sveti Nikole
The result of the public-private partnership between the State Bulgarian University from Veliko Tarnovo “Ss. Ss. Cyril and Methodius” (VTU) and the Macedonian private International Slav University (MSU) is the offer of master studies for Macedonian students taught by Bulgarian professors. Apart from educational...
The construction of the 5G network brings the demise of the Chinese domination in North Macedonia’s telecommunications
“Makedonski Telekom” (Macedonian Telecom) and “A1 Makedonija” (A1 Macedonia) telecoms are currently modernizing their complete mobile telephony infrastructure and working on the implementation of their 5G networks in North Macedonia. Unlike all the previous instances of a technological makeover, North Macedonia as a member...
While the citizens of North Macedonia breathe pollution, diesel consumption breaks all records [Infographic]
The “competition” of Skopje and the other cities in North Macedonia in breaking the world records for air pollution has commenced. While the data from “Iqair” indicates that Skopje is at the top of the world list of air pollution, together with the Asian...
Government of NMacedonia’s promise to help the municipalities procure new waste containers and bins is partially fulfilled
The Government of the Republic of North Macedonia's Programme for Work for the period 2020-2024, promises that by the end of 2024, the government will provide direct support for the procurement of 10,000 bins and containers annually for the municipalities, as help towards protection...
Government of North Macedonia didn’t introduce the promised environmental stickers for vehicles
In late 2018, the Government of the Republic of North Macedonia promised it will introduce environmental stickers for categorization of the pollution the vehicles cause, with a set deadline for implementation in 2019 and 2020. The promise written in the Program for Reducing Air...
Buying Russian gas through a Bulgarian gas pipeline – so far the best solution for the tepid radiators in Skopje
So far, the Government of North Macedonia doesn't have any stable option for buying gas for the central heating system in the capital Skopje, apart from purchasing gas from the Russian state company Gazprom through the gas pipeline from Bulgaria to Kumanovo. But, seeing...
