In 2018 a Russian oligarch living in Greece was secretly funding efforts to prevent the then-country of Macedonia from changing its name and becoming part of the European Union and NATO, the New York Times has reported.

The effort fell apart when U.S. intelligence intercepted the communications of the oligarch, Ivan Savvidis, and alerted both the Macedonian and Greek governments to what was going on. Greek leaders, who had leaned against Macedonia changing its name to North Macedonia so it could join the European political and military alliances, reversed course after seeing the American intelligence.