Lavrov: Events in Macedonia orchestrated from outside

© Sputnik/ Dmitriy Vinogradov

    

Lavrov said that outside pressure is being put on current Macedonian Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski for not agreeing to follow Western-backed sanctions against Russia and is being blamed for incompetency.

"There are attempts to pressure Gruevski's government for refusing to join in on sanctions against Russia and for backing the Turkish Stream [gas] pipeline [construction]."

Moscow is concerned over the situation in Macedonia, Lavrov said during a speech before the Russian upper house of parliament.

"The Macedonian events are quite brutal and are being orchestrated from outside."

Late in April, a group of some 40 Albanian-speaking gunmen briefly seized a police station in the northern Macedonian village of Gosince calling for the establishment of an Albanian state. Less than three weeks after the incident, on May 9, Macedonia witnessed deadly clashes between police and an armed group of Albanians in Kumanovo, a city bordering Serbia and Kosovo.

Following the deadly clashes, the country was hit by a wave of protests staged by the Social Democratic Union of Macedonia (SDSM) that accuses the country's government of corruption and demands its resignation.

Gruevski said that the opposition is trying to exploit the tragedy in Kumanovo to gain power.