The Macedonian Orthodox Church has been accused of being under "Russian influence" because of its refusal to recognize the OCU

Macedonian activist, journalist, and co-founder of CIVIL Today, Jabir Derala, accused the Macedonian Orthodox Church (MOC) of “being under the strong influence of the Russian Orthodox Church,” which he said poses a serious obstacle to its recognition of the autocephaly of the OCU. He made these remarks in a comment to Ukrinform’s .

According to Deral, the Macedonian Church “is one of the key channels of Russian influence in the region.” For many years, activists have been gathering evidence of close ties between the Macedonian Orthodox Church and structures of the Russian Orthodox Church. Derala emphasizes that the Macedonian Church’s refusal to recognize the OCU is a direct consequence of this “ideological and ecclesiastical dependence.”

In addition, Derala noted the “activity of the Russian embassy” in North Macedonia, which regularly holds events that are actively covered by local media without proper fact-checking. ““Russia spices up its propaganda in Macedonia with localized narratives,” Derala asserts, adding that Moscow, together with Belgrade, is actively promoting the image of a “savior” of the Macedonian people from fictitious external enemies.

As a reminder, Metropolitan John of Kruševac and Demir Hisar previously stated that the Macedonian Orthodox Church (MOC) does not need a second tomos of autocephaly from the Patriarchate of Constantinople, considering the document received from the Serbian Church to be sufficient. In his interview, he also emphasized that the MOC should not take sides in the schism between Moscow and Constantinople and touched upon internal issues related to the integration of the former Orthodox Archdiocese of Ohrid.