Unwanted imports: Anti-EU Kremlin disinformation rides high in N. Macedonia

Most of the anti-EU Kremlin disinformation in N. Macedonia originate abroad, both in Russia and in the West, and then arrive in the country through the social platforms and some through the internet media. Some of them are then adjusted to the local context, and the small number of disinformation pushing Kremlin narratives are native. Because of this, there is a large similarity of Kremlin’s anti-EU disinformation in the country and those all over Europe. Important conduit for the Kremlin disinformation in the country is Serbia, as Kremlin’s Balkans disinfo hub. But, more and more, they tend to also arrive from everywhere. The most important thing is that they are here, and therefore they need to be countered, writes Truthmeter.mk.

Under the content-sharing agreement between Truthmeter.mk and Meta.mk, we republish the text below:

by Vladimir Petreski

How is Kremlin propaganda doing in a small country in the middle of the Balkans, one with fragile democracy and unchecked corruption, one that is having lot of issues with its neighbors, EU candidate country for accession since 2005 and a country that has been living in peace pretty much most of the time since the breakup of former Yugoslavia in 1990, except for 6 months in 2001 when hostilities arose between the Macedonian security forces and the Albanian guerilla of the UCK (People’s Liberation Army), but the number of casualties never surpassed three figures? Pretty well, considering! Much better than some other places in the Balkan neighborhood – like Serbia, for example, which became the regional hub for spreading Kremlin propaganda, or Bosnia, where the interests of the three ethnicities (Serbs, Muslims and the Croats) clash, causing instability used by the Kremlin propaganda, or Montenegro, where Kremlin attempted an unsuccessful coup in 2017 (thankfully) or Bulgaria, where the old communist guard and the nationalist parties are known to be allied with Kremlin on a lot of issues.

But, it is not a smooth sailing all the way in N. Macedonia, too. Kremlin disinformation is still present, using many opportunities to sow fear and divisions, but mostly to capitalize on the fact that N. Macedonia is still far away from the EU membership, guaranteeing full protection from the EU institutions, after becoming NATO member in 2020. But now Kremlin is playing on the country’s economic weaknesses, as well as weak democracy and the populations’ discontent with the lack of progress on the way to EU membership even after the name change and 19 years of candidate status.

Country’s democracy had ups and downs, but still being kept up for the first two decades of independence until the political crisis hit in 2011, when the then authoritarian government led by the right wing nationalist VMRO-DPMNE party closed down the country’s largest TV station, all the way to 2016, when they lost the elections and the first half of 2017 with the scariest day of 27. April 2017, when VMRO-DPMNE supported mob broke into the Parliament building trying to provoke inter-party and inter-ethnic violence, hoping that the ensuing chaos would lead to overturning the elections and allow them to somehow stay in power “to keep the peace and in the name of national security.” It didn’t work. The power changed hands according to the election results, the authoritarian Prime-Minister Nikola Gruevski was convicted by the courts on corruption grounds, but then managed to escape to Hungary, where he still resides under the protection of country’s authoritarian PM, Viktor Orban.

Even back then the long hand of the Kremlin propaganda and their brand of hybrid warfare could be felt in N. Macedonia. Kremlin did its’ best sowing chaos through the local supporters and media, as well as Serbian media exporting Kremlin propaganda south to N. Macedonia. Belgrade tabloids were publishing ridiculous claims of “3 thousand Albanian armed men on the Macedonian-Albanian border” or “4 thousand armed men from UCK at Macedonian- Kosovo border” being ready to attack, engaging local pro-Russian forces in supporting the autocratic government, organizing 34 Russian-Macedonian friendship associations, which is ludicrous and never came to anything, while the Russian oligarch Ivan Savvidis, who lives in Thessaloniki, Greece, was accused of funneling 300 thousand euros to local nationalist and pro-Russian organizations and individuals in N. Macedonia to steer unrest. That’s the guy who stormed the football pitch couple of years before, carrying a gun on his belt, not satisfied with the judges’ decision during one of the games of the Thessaloniki ’s PAOK football team he owned.

All of this, back then, was in order to do everything what Kre