Macedonia’s prime minister has accused “Greek businessmen” sympathetic to Russia’s interests of fomenting unrest in the country over its proposed name change, which — if it goes forward — will finally enable it to join NATO.
Now, interior ministry documents seen by the Investigative Reporting Lab Macedonia, a partner of the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), reveal the source of at least some of the payments: At least 300,000 euros were given to opponents of the renaming by Ivan Savvidi, a Russian billionaire living in Greece who was formerly a member of the Russian parliament.
