The newly founded ANB security agency and the interim Prime Minister Oliver Spasovski have remained silent days after Interior Minister Nake Culev revealed that the agency is abusing its powers for surveillance of the opposition.

Culev said that the ANB agency still has the ability to abuse its wiretapping capabilities, given that it remains connected to the optical cable connecting the also newly founded OTA surveillance agency. OTA was supposed to be an independent institution that would act on court approved wiretapping warrants, but Culev revealed that it remains technically linked to the ANB. The ANB is the successor to the notorious UBK agency, which was involved in several major abuses of its surveillance systems, including the 2015 scandal that caused a deep and on-going political crisis in Macedonia.

The Agency for National Security (ANB) is still aprt of the surveillance system. This is contrary to law, Culev said, noting that opposition officials are being frequently submitted to leaks that likely come from abuse of both electronic and physical surveillance.

The UBK was purged of officers who were perceived as not loyal to the ruling SDSM party during the term of Oliver Spasovski as Interior Minister. The Government, and in all likelyhood the SDSM party, had the final say in the recruitment of agents in the newly founded ANB agency, which is now led by a long term SDSM party loyalist.