Russia accuses West of trying to destabilize Macedonia

[Hexen]

Russia accuses West of trying to destabilize Macedonia

MOSCOW

http://s4.reutersmedia.net/resources/r/?m=02&d=20150516&t=2&i=1048858205&w=644&fh=&fw=&ll=&pl=&r=LYNXMPEB4F08Z
An little girl stand in front of her destroyed house in Kumanovo ,Macedonia May 12, 2015.
Reuters/Ognen Teofilovski



- Russia accused "Western organizers" on Saturday of trying to foment a "color revolution" in the troubled former Yugoslav republic of Macedonia, where political tensions are building ahead of an opposition rally on Sunday.
"Color revolution" is a term often used to describe popular uprisings in the former Soviet Union, including Ukraine, where Moscow also accuses the West of deliberately meddling in local politics to further its interests.
In a statement on the Macedonian crisis, Russia's foreign ministry cited Serbian media reports about the arrest of a citizen of Montenegro accused of helping what Moscow called "Albanian extremists" operating in Macedonia.
"(This is) convincing evidence ... of attempts to push the country into the abyss of 'color revolution'," it said.
"This is also evidence that Western organizers of such catastrophic scenarios prefer to realize them with the hands of others," the ministry said, drawing a parallel with Ukraine.
Moscow accuses the West of helping to engineer the overthrow of Ukraine's pro-Russian president Viktor Yanukovich after mass street protests in early 2014. He then fled to Russia.
In Macedonia, opponents of Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski plan to hold a rally on Sunday to demand his resignation over wire-tap disclosures that appear to indicate widespread abuse of office by senior government officials.
The small Balkan state is also reeling from a bloody gun
battle last weekend during a police raid on an ethnic Albanian neighborhood of northern Macedonia that left 18 people dead -- 10 ethnic Albanians described by the government as "terrorists" and eight policemen.
The European Union and NATO have called for a transparent investigation into last week's killings.
Russia has often been critical of Western policy in the Balkans. It strongly backed the Serbs -- fellow Orthodox Christian Slavs -- in their conflict with their mainly Muslim ethnic Albanian minority in the 1990s.
Moscow opposed granting independence to Kosovo, formerly a Serbian province with a mainly ethnic Albanian population. Macedonia, just to the south of Kosovo, is also home to a large ethnic Albanian minority.


Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/05/16/us-macedonia-crisis-russia-idUSKBN0O10M520150516

So what does anyone make out of this?

[DOOM]

Huh that's bizarre. Why would Russia be interested in Macedonia's inner affairs?

[Sasha]

macedonia is mostly eastern-orthodox, the albanian minority is obviously not, Russia today sees (as it always has done actually, even when Tito rejected the USSR) the whole of the Balkans as belonging to its sphere of influence.

[Matteo]

I am more and more convinced the Cold War never truly ended. The only difference now is Western powers are actively and imperialistically destabilising the former socialist blocs, as opposed to staying within their own ideological and territorial domains.

[Comrade Jacob]

I am more and more convinced the Cold War never truly ended. The only difference now is Western powers are actively and imperialistically destabilising the former socialist blocs, as opposed to staying within their own ideological and territorial domains.

It never ended, it's against the DPRK now.

[Sasha]

It never ended, it's against the DPRK now.

lol, north korea is like slightly above the CAR on the list of interest to imperialism atm, if they weren't they where long gone, in fact, i have a sneaky suspicion that the US actually wants to keep the Kims in place to assure the continued clientelism of south korea...

[Exterminatus]

Macedonian people have it bad, but they are all rallying behind oppositional social democratic party (and even that is in name only, they're neoliberals).

[Ismail]

macedonia is mostly eastern-orthodox, the albanian minority is obviously not, Russia today sees (as it always has done actually, even when Tito rejected the USSR) the whole of the Balkans as belonging to its sphere of influence.The Soviets under Lenin and Stalin supported the Albanian national movement in Yugoslavia. This was also reflected in the policies and program of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia well into WWII. Case in point, from the resolution of the CPY adopted at its Fourth Congress in 1928:

"The Party proclaims the solidarity of the revolutionary workers and peasants of the other nations of Yugoslavia, above all Serbia, with the Albanian national-revolutionary movement personified by the Kosovo Committee and calls upon the working class to extend comprehensive assistance to the struggle of the dismembered and suppressed Albanian people for an independent and unified Albania."
(Desanka Pešić, "The Communist Party of Yugoslavia and the National Question of Albanians between the Two World Wars," in Filipović, Gordana (ed). Kosovo: Past and Present. Belgrade: Review of International Affairs. 1989. p. 95.)

According to Hoxha, in his conversations with Stalin in 1949, the latter agreed that the Kosovar Albanians should have been given the right to decide whether they wished to remain in Yugoslavia or rejoin Albania. At the same time Stalin pointed out that, "We must not leave any way for the Titoite enemy to accuse us later of allegedly waging our fight to break up the Yugoslav Federation. This is a delicate moment and needs very careful handling, because by saying, 'See, they want to break up Yugoslavia,' Tito not only gathers reaction around him, but also tries to win the patriotic elements over to his side."

After the Soviet revisionists came to power and rehabilitated Yugoslav revisionism from 1955 onwards, traditional themes of Pan-Slavism and the like were rekindled, so for example in response to the demonstrations of workers and students in Kosova in 1981, the Soviet press denounced the Albanians and took the side of the Yugoslav government.

[Philosophos]

What I get out of this, is that once again the big guys want to fuck the Balkans once again. I mean seriously, I read regularly almost every article I get into my hands and the one says that the Albanian terrorists are backed up by the Albanian state, then Albania says "no we have nothing to do with that", then you see it's because of Kosovo that this whole mess is created, then no it's not about Kosovo. Generally whenever I see something like this (not someone making official comments, about their actions) it's mostly because some 'great power' for example the USA wants to do something for their own interest.

The best in my opinion reason for the USA and the EU to do something like this is to cut out Russia's resource plans and isolate them as much as possible. I mean Russia used Ukraine for trading gas and stuff like that, boom-> Ukraine has a civil war. Then Russia started talking with Greece, Bulgaria and Turkey boom-> once again instability to these regions. At some point Macedonia was also part of this huge tube-gas project and now "pays the price".

Of course I don't really have any evidence on the subject, I'm not a journalist or whatever and I don't have the time to make such a research, but it only makes sense.
I can't really believe that the Albanians woke up one day and said "hey our rights in Macedonia are being stepped on" and not try to change the primeminister first (one of the most ridiculous primeministers if you ask me, taking votes by force and stuff).
At the same time there was a huge protest with around 70000 people in Skopje (I'm not sure of the number someone can correct me) in which all sorts of ethnicities were together waving their flags and protesting against Gruevski not against each other.

This thing smells bullshit from miles away and I'm too afraid more lives will be lost for practically no reason