Speaking before the Federation Council, Lavrov said the reason could be the desire to influence the Macedonian government over its refusal to join anti-Russian sanctions, and the decision to support South Stream, and then Turkish Stream pipelines.

“There are attempts to pressure (PM Nikola) Gruevski’s government for refusing to join in on sanctions against Russia and for backing the Turkish Stream pipeline. The Macedonian events are quite brutal and are being orchestrated from outside,” Sputnik quoted him as saying.

The Russian minister "stressed the need to rule out support to coups modeled after Ukraine and Yemen," and added there had been attempts to organize something similar in Macedonia, "by using the Albanian factor, in an unconstructive way."