Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that, as new NATO members, Macedonia and Montenegro will not be safer, but will not be forced to spend significant portions of their budgets on purchasing American weapons systems. In an interview, Lavrov said that this latest round of NATO expansion also means that the Western military infrastructure is moving closer to the Russian borders, and that Europe will not be made safer with that.

In Macedonia they held a referendum which was the worst possible violation of their Constitution. Their Constitution calls that referendums are held with one question alone, and they got three questions – do you want to become part of the EU, do you want to join NATO and do you want to change the name. That was extremely crooked, said Lavrov.

Lavrov also denies that Russia meddled in any way in the referendum, but, with its public statements, merely points out the violations of the Macedonian Constitution.