Tags Russia
Tag: Russia
Ivan Georgiev: The fight against disinformation in Bulgaria is almost nonexistent
Ivan Georgiev is reporter and anchor of bTV, one of Bulgaria’s main TV stations. He has covered some of the leading international and regional events in the past few years, Macedonia included to a large extent.
Ivan is author of numerous short documentaries. In 2012 he was awarded with the World Press Institute Fellowship. He is also holder of several...
Russia again approves import of peaches, plums and other fruits from Macedonia
Since yesterday, various agricultural crops from Macedonia and Serbia will again be able to be exported to Russia, announced the Russian Ministry of Agriculture.
The decision comes after the relevant agency visited the country and Serbia, after which the decision to resume exports was made, stated Russian news agency "RIA Novosti".
In August last year, a temporary restriction was imposed by...
“Facebook” removes 212 fake profiles from North Macedonia and Kosovo
In a recent report sent to the European Commission (EC), as a signatory to the Code of Practice Against Disinformation, Facebook says it has taken down eight coordinated networks of fake profiles from North Macedonia, Kosovo and Russia in the last few weeks. Facebook say the report explains that in total they removed over 2,000 profiles, pages and groups,...
Russian website attempts to take over established online magazine brand
The newsroom of the online magazine Balkanist.net, founded in Serbia, was surprised to find out that they have a Russian doppelgänger (Balkanist.ru) with completelly opposite editorial policy.
Balkanist.net is an English-language platform which since 2013 has been offering news and analytical articles about the Balkans and Eastern Europe by various international authors.
The magazine's editor-in-chief Lily Lunch stated for...
Soft power: How alternative medicine publications promote brand Russia in the Balkans
One method for spreading Russian influence in the Balkans is through alternative medicine magazines.
While the newspaper industry in all Balkan countries is in steep decline, numbers of magazines with titles like “Russian Doctor,” “Russian Herbalist,” “Russian Encyclopedia of Health” had been increasing since 2015. At least half dozens of them originate in Serbia and spread through the newsstands of...
Kremlin disinformation should be opposed with accuracy
Brian Whitmore, senior researcher and Director of the Russian Program at the Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA), a research institute dedicated to Eastern, Central European and Russian Studies, held a virtual lecture, which could be followed in four cities across Eastern Europe: Bucharest, Kiev, Podgorica and Skopje for dealing with disinformation that originated in the Kremlin, as a...
With elections just days away, Ukraine faces disinformation, cyber attacks and further Russian interference
Ukrainians will head for the polls on Sunday 31 March in what will be the first regular national elections since the country's 2014 Euromaidan revolution.
With its Crimean peninsula still occupied by Russian forces, an ongoing military conflict in eastern Ukraine, and rising activity of far-right groups, the country is a prime target for both domestic and external information influence operations.
Ukraine has been...
Facebook deletes thousands of profiles from Macedonia, Kosovo, Russia and Iran
Facebook today announced that it has deleted thousands of profiles from Macedonia, Kosovo, Russia and Iran, which had showed "unauthentic coordinated behavior". Of the social networks Facebook and Instagram, 2,632 profiles, pages, and groups were deleted for various reasons.
Of the total number, 1,907 profiles or pages were from Russia, and 513 from Iran. In regards to Russia, the main...
Kosachev: Macedonia’s accession to NATO will not bring anything good
The Chairman of the Committee on International Relations of the Council of the Russian Federation, Konstantin Kosachev, has determined that Macedonia's signing of the Accession Protocol for NATO is perhaps a symbolic act, but is important for the Alliance, given the growing conflict between the Alliance and Moscow.
"This is more of a symbolic step than a practical one, because...
MFA tells Moscow: The future will confirm the correctness of the Prespa Agreement
In response to yesterday's statement by the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the MFA (Macedonian Ministry of Foreign Affairs) says that the procedure for passing the constitutional changes in accordance with the Prespa Agreement is with full respect of the envisaged parliamentary procedure and the Constitution of the Republic of Macedonia, and expressed regret that Russia "in a negative...
Moscow: The constitutional changes are against the will of the people, the UN’s Security Council should discuss the name
The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs' Department for Informing and Press Relations has called the passing of the new amendments of the Macedonian Constitution in order to change the country's name as "an artificial change of the country's name in order for an enforced entering of Skopje into NATO" and stated that the problem with the country's renaming should...
Maslov: Russia doesn’t oppose Macedonia’s new name, it opposes NATO membership
Russia doesn't oppose the Prespa Agreement regarding the name but it opposes Macedonia's membership into NATO, said Russian Ambassador to Greece, Andrej Maslov during a briefing in Athens regarding the visit of the Greek Prime Minister, Alexis Tsipras in Moscow.
- If Athens and Skopje reach an agreement about the name and if that is officially accepted by the Republic of Macedonia's...
Živaljević and his boss settle in BiH, while Sarajevo fear their own April 27
Goran Živaljević, the Serbian intelligence officer who photographed himself in Parliament during the brutal violence on 27 April, 2017, has been in Sarajevo since the beginning of November, this year, at the Serbian embassy.
The first position - ambassador - is carried out by his boss from May this year, former director of the Serbian security and intelligence agency -...
“Politika”: Gruevski raises tensions between America and Russia
While it has been formally claimed that fugitive Macedonian Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski is in Budapest, some articles speculate that he had traveled to Russia or Turkey, reported Serbian pro-government daily newspaper "Politika". The article points out that both Russia and Turkey maintain diplomatic relations with Skopje, but have clashed over pro-Western policies pursued by Prime Minister Zoran Zaev.
Under...
Baily: I wasn’t at the Parliament as I was watching the voting on TV
After the accusations from the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs that the US Ambassador in Macedonia, Jess Baily, was present at the Parliament during the voting for the initiation of the constitutional changes, yesterday on TV21, he denied these claims, stating that he was watching the voting on TV, from his living room.
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-That day I was working in...
Russian news agency “Sputnik” calls country “N. Macedonia”
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,...
USA: Russian claims that we interfered in the vote in Parliament are disinformation
The US State Department assessed Russia's accusations that the United States was involved in the recent vote in the Parliament of the Republic of Macedonia, which gave the green light to start constitutional changes in the country, as unreasonable as an attempt to misinform and propaganda
"Any allegation that representatives of the US Embassy were involved in the voting process in Parliament...
As Stavreski and Janakieski treated Russia on Stip pipeline, Macedonia picked up the bill
With the agreement with Russia, to cover its share of the debt of the former USSR through the construction of the Klechovce-Stip pipeline, former Finance Minister Zoran Stavreski and former Minister of Transport and Communications Mile Janakieski wrote off the entire debt while Macedonia paid for its gas pipeline alone.
This was the conclusion from the Public Prosecutor’s Office (SPO) in...
Zakharova: Western countries want to bring Macedonia into NATO at any cost
The West, as before, is trying to drag Macedonia into NATO, even after the referendum on the name change, said Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova at a weekly briefing in Moscow.
Zakharova said that "the obvious goal of the Western countries is to bring Macedonia into NATO at any cost".
According to Zakharova, Russia's position remains principled and unchanged, and...
Russian MFA: In the referendum, solutions imposed from the outside were boycotted
The result of the referendum in Macedonia shows that voters have decided to boycott solutions imposed from outside, said the Russian Foreign Ministry.
"Leading politicians from NATO and the European Union were directly involved in the propaganda campaign, not refraining from interfering in the country's internal affairs. Despite the fact that two thirds of the citizens of Macedonia did not...
