MIA

PHOTO: TANJUG / MINISTARSTVO SPOLJNIH POSLOVA

Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic has reiterated his position that Serbia was wrong to recognized Macedonia (FYROM) under its constitutional name.

This is according to a report published by the Macedonian news agency MIA, cited by Tanjug on Tuesday.

Moscow has been "closely monitoring the developments in Macedonia," Russian President Vladimir Putin has said.

This is according to a Beta report on Wednesday, that quoted Macedonia's MIA agency.

Macedonian President Gjorge Ivanov, on a visit to Russia, is expected to meet President Putin on Wednesday to "discuss issues pertaining to further development of bilateral cooperation", Putin's office wrote in a press release.

"They will also exchange opinions on current regional issues and, primarily, on the situation in the Balkans," the same press release reads.

Macedonian police late on Thursday cleared the building of the country's Assembly after incidents and violence that happened there earlier in the evening.

Officers were posted in front of all entrances, while metal barriers were set up around the Assembly, the agency MIA reported.

Photo: Tanjug

A drone carrying a flag of "Greater Albania" was flown on Sunday during a football game in Skopje played between Shkupi and Vardar.

The flag depicts Albania expanded to include parts of neighboring countries.

US Ambassador to Macedonia (FYROM) Jess Baily on Thursday expressed his concern over the political crisis unfolding in the country.

In a post on Twitter, Baily said that he was in agreement with EU Commissioner Johannes Hahn on this issue.

"Concerned that Macedonia moving away from principles of democracy and rule of law, core NATO values," the diplomat added in his tweet.

Macedonian President Gjorge Ivanov has said he will not hand the second-largest party, SDSM, the mandate to form a government.

In a statement quoted by MIA news agency, he has called on SDSM leader Zoran Zaev to reject the so-called "Albanian platform". The latter was part of the preconditions for three of four Albanian parties to give support to Zaev's coalition efforts.

Nikola Gruevski has offered to support a minority government led by the SDSM if its leader gave up on implementing the so-called Tirana Platform.

According to the MIA agency, former Macedonian PM Gruevski, the leader of the VMRO-DPMNE party, thinks the platform in question "could fundamentally change Macedonia and lead to divisions along ethnic lines."

Macedonian officials have expressed their outrage at comments from United States Congressman Dana Rohrabacher, who told an Albanian TV station Macedonia should be divided and its creation was a failed project.

Its territories should be divided between neighboring states, Kosovo and Bulgaria included, Macedonian media quote him as telling Albania's Vizion Plus TV.

Public transport buses will be free in Skopje starting Tuesday as a result of high levels of air pollution, authorities say.

The measure will be in force until pollution is reduced to normal values, state-run agency MIA quotes Mayor Kotse Trajanovski as saying.

Trajanovski himself intends on using public transport instead of his own car.