Russian news agency “Sputnik News”, formerly known as “RIA Novosti” and “Voice of Russia”, has already renamed the Republic of Macedonia to North Macedonia.
Under the headline “Greece, N. Macedonia have “started talking” despite “identity conflict”, the Russian agency that is part of the government’s media consortium “Rossiya Segodnya”, published an interview with Professor Neophytos Loizides from the University of Kent, UK, on Monday regarding the latest developments in the deal with Greece and the decades-long dispute between both countries, and called the country “N. Macedonia” in the headline.
Given the fact that it is a state news agency, which is directly under the head of the Russian government, the renaming could be understood as a signal of official Russian policy, that the constitutional changes in Macedonian Parliament are already ready in place, and Macedonia will accept the name North Macedonia, as the main segment of the Prespa Accord.
