The case of Ukrainian oligarch Oleksandr Onyshchenko, who was given a Macedonian citizenship under false pretenses, is not the only such recent case, said VMRO-DPMNE Vice President Aleksandar Nikoloski. In his Sitel TV interview, Nikoloski said that Onyshchenko was in Macedonia for only two days when he was given his passport.

This is not a naive or accidental case. To receive a Macedonian citizenship, a foreign person must undergo security evaluations and an interview, for which he must be in the country. Onyshchenko was in Macedonia for two days, in December 2020 and in April 2022, and he received his citizenship on May 31st 2022. There were numerous failures to follow the procedure, Nikoloski said, demanding responsibility from the Interior Minister Oliver Spasovski and from the head of the secret service Viktor Dimovski for issuing a passport to a person on an American black list. “You are not just put on such a list for no reason”, Nikoloski said.