Did Russia’s influence play a role in the double murder in North Macedonia?

Frosina Tasevska Remenski, a university professor at the Faculty of Security in Skopje, says that the murder of Vanja Gjorčevska (14) and Pance Zezovski (74) may also be linked to malign foreign influences in the country, especially Russian ones.

In an interview for the Voice of America in Macedonian, she says that the investigation against Ljupco Palevski’s group should be expanded because, in her opinion, their actions are tantamount to terrorism.

“According to my unofficial information, this group had much bigger plans. There were liquidation lists. There were blackmail lists. There were threat lists, kidnapping lists, which means that this is a challenge for the investigating authorities. A challenge for the police, for the security services. “Thwarting the plans and presenting them to the public, and that would be their additional responsibility in this whole case,” Remenski said.

In her opinion, any resistance to strategic interests, such as membership of the EU and, in the past, NATO, comes precisely from those pro-Russian structures that have used this great Macedonianism to commit the greatest crimes against both citizens and the state.

“By the fact that we have become a real nest of these external, foreign influences, I would say mainly Russian. “Here the logic of its connection with precisely those political-patriotic structures that are baptized in mother Russia becomes clear,” Remenski adds.

The professor is convinced that the effects of the abduction and killing of the student Vanya are terrorist tactics: “They have an extreme radicalism that manifests itself in acts of terrorism that may not initially be considered terrorism.” In this case, we are dealing with kidnapping and murder. But they are also tactics for committing terrorism. General, causing public concern, damaging social relationships, interpersonal relationships, causing distrust of institutions and directing political processes.”

According to Remenska, it is possible that pensioner Pance Zezovski knew about the group’s activities: “From a forensic and operational point of view, the thesis that a debt of 500 euros and the mere taking of a car is a reason for murder is not valid.” In no case, in all the cases investigated and proven to date, can murder be the cause. That’s why I point out that he may have been one of those five … I don’t know how many there were … However, I see the suspects and those arrested as possibly having ruined the plan and posing the risk that they would be betrayed and liquidated by him.

Otherwise, five people involved in the crime are in custody in Skopje, while the suspect of two murders, Lupco Palevski, was arrested in Turkey on Wednesday. The Minister of Justice of North Macedonia, Krenar Lloga, signed the extradition request and sent it immediately. It is not known if and when the Turkish state will respond to this request.

/The Geopost