Credit: Nake Batev / NOVA TV How Macedonia’s Scandal-plagued Nationalists Lobbied America’s Right and Pulled Them Into an Anti-Soros Crusade

DONATE Above: Supporters of the nationalist VMRO-DPNME party protest in Macedonia’s capital, Skopje. Credit: Nake Batev / NOVA TV Until late last year, a mention of Macedonia in the halls of power in Washington, DC, would most likely elicit only shrugs. But things have changed. In recent months, America’s right has become fervently interested in what one writer termed a “battle royale” within the tiny Balkan country. On one side is Macedonia’s conservative former ruling party, portrayed by its newfound U.S. supporters as a staunch defender of free markets and traditional morality. On the other, they say, are nefarious left-wing opponents backed by billionaire financier George Soros. Conservative media outlets, such as Breitbart and Fox News, as well as the right-wing Heritage Foundation, have devoted considerable coverage to Soros’ alleged meddling in Macedonia. And more than a dozen Republican congressmen have written critical letters questioning the U.S. embassy and Ambassador Jess Baily for working with Soros-linked NGOs. Behind these headlines lies another story: a determined lobbying effort in the United States by VMRO-DPMNE, the scandal-plagued nationalist party that formerly ruled the country, an investigation by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) and Macedonia’s NOVA TV has found. Senior VMRO members and government officials are among hundreds of people questioned since 2015 by a special prosecutor set up to investigate alleged crimes including the illegal mass surveillance of thousands of Macedonians, electoral fraud and large-scale corruption. Since last year, senior VMRO officials have personally lobbied conservative U.S. politicians and media outlets in an attempt to discredit their domestic opponents and push the anti-Soros narrative, according to interviews and publicly available documents. Macedonia’s government also hired a Republican-leaning lobbyist, Mercury Public Affairs, for work that may have been for party interests. Mercury also appears to have obscured its Macedonia-related work in the United States by using an apparent front group – a likely violation of the U.S. Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA). VMRO’s appeal to the American right follows an earlier, and somewhat more transparent, effort to influence decision makers under the centrist administration of former U.S. President Barack Obama. Filings and confidential transaction records obtained by OCCRP and NOVA show that, between 2015 and early 2017, the party spent more than a million dollars on four U.S.-based lobbyists and public relations firms, three of them aligned with the Democratic Party. All this has pushed Macedonia onto the agenda in DC. Most recently, it prompted U.S. conservatives to join in on an anti-Soros line of attack favored by Russia and Europe’s authoritarian nationalists. This friendly attention has, in turn, been picked up by media loyal to VMRO in Macedonia, as well as by Russian state media.

A Balkan Tinderbox VMRO’s influence campaign came amid a protracted political crisis in Macedonia. The conservative party, which came to power in 2006 under former Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski, cut taxes and pushed for membership in NATO and the European Union. But it also muzzled critical media, intimidated the civil service, and pursued projects tainted by allegations of graft, such as a baroque revamp of the capital, Skopje, that has cost over US$ 760 million dollars, according to the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network (BIRN). The country was pushed into the crisis in February 2015, when the leader of the then-opposition Social Democrats, Zoran Zaev, released recordings that allegedly showed that Gruevski had ordered the illegal wiretapping of over 20,000 Macedonians. Amid street protests, the European Union brokered a deal that saw Gruevski step down, fresh elections scheduled for 2016, and an independent special prosecutor established. The special prosecution began investigating alleged wrongdoing by Gruevski and other key VMRO figures. The elections, held in December, resulted in a hung parliament. The country was without a government for five months until Zaev finally formed a coalition government with two ethnic Albanian parties on May 31. The interim period was tense, featuring regular protests and the April 27 storming of the parliament by nationalist protesters who beat Zaev and other lawmakers. Despite its new government, Macedonia remains fragile because VMRO officials “have a lot to lose,” said Florian Bieber, a professor of Southeast European Studies at Austria’s Graz University. “Losing office means they run the risk of going to jail,” he said. “Any investigations into wrongdoing will be undermined by accusations of a lack of patriotism or of outside interference.” During the crisis, VMRO and its supporters pursued a concerted anti-Soros campaign, seeing in the U.S.-based philanthropist a powerful foreign patron of their left-leaning opponents. In December, Gruevski called for the “desorosization” of the country, and demonstrators marched against Baily, the U.S. ambassador, for allegedly working with Soros-affiliated NGOs. Shortly after, VMRO supporters launched a “global initiative” called “Stop Operation Soros,” complete with an English-language website. This has gelled with Russia’s line on Macedonia. Both Russian and Serbian intelligence agencies are at work in the country, spreading propaganda and promoting nationalists in a bid to push it away from NATO membership, OCCRP and partners reported on June 4 after obtaining leaked Macedonian counterintelligence documents. Since the start of Macedonia’s crisis in 2015, Russia’s government has publicly backed Gruevski, attacked his opponents, and raised the specter of Western interference in the country’s affairs. Russian state media have also warned of a Soros-backed “fifth column” active in Macedonia. The campaign is part of a wider anti-Soros movement promoted by authoritarian governments in Europe and right-wing populists in the United States. The Hungarian and Polish governments have gone after Soros-funded groups and institutions. In Macedonia’s neighbor, Serbia, nationalist media outlets have attacked Soros as being behind a plan to destabilize the country. A March conference in Hungary’s capital that brought together populist activists adopted the name of the Macedonian group “Stop Operation Soros.” Ljupcho Zlatev, a right-wing journalist from Macedonia who attended the conference, told OCCRP that Soros was picked as a target because he personifies a liberal, globalist threat to traditional nationalism. “George Soros is not the only one, but he is a symbol,” Zlatev said. “You can’t go and protest against the British Council or the Swiss development agency, you know.”