Macedonia withdrew its consent for an honorary consulate of Russia in Bitola, Moscow announces a counter reaction.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia said that Macedonia informed it about the withdrawal of its consent for the establishment of honorary consul of Russia in Bitola.

There is nothing in the statement about the motives for this step – apparently, they could not be formulated due to their clear absence, commented the Deputy Director of the Information and Press Department of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Ivan Nechaev.

According to the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, this is a politically motivated and hostile gesture by the Republic of Macedonia towards Russia.

There is no doubt that this is again a politically motivated, hostile gesture. The purpose of the repeated attack against us is to deepen the gap in Russian-Macedonian relations that arose due to the dependent behavior of Macedonia, to show the blind loyalty of this Balkan country to the Western allies, their policy of sanctions and the harsh pressure on Russia. We regret this attitude of the Republic of Macedonia, because with this move the support and cooperation that develops through the consular representation in Bitola is sacrificed. An appropriate counter-reaction from Russia will follow. It is unfortunate that this time in Skopje, due to the anti-Russian course, the institution of honorary consuls, which helps in the development of interpersonal contacts, provide support to people and businesses, is being sacrificed. Accordingly, they do not care much about their own interests there and provoke our counter reaction, which will certainly follow, said the Russian MFA.