in your question. ukraine is attacked by a larger country. ukrainian democracy and the right of the ukrainian people to decide on their future, on their constitution, on their way of life has been attacked by a bigger country. we are not the biggest country on the balkans, but on the contrary. and that is why we have always protected the values of free democracy and on the free choice of people to govern and to strategically orient their country. but russia traditionally has a strong diplomatic presence in the balkans, it has leverage in the balkans. are you sure you want to make an enemy of moscow, for example, by sending t 72 tanks to ukraine? so all the decisions which we have made have been made with the decisions of the government, and they have been publicly stated.
inside this country to protest and attack the government. do you think russia is meddling here? first, i didn t answer to one part of your question, and this is about the energy dependence of the balkans. in europe, there are countries which are fully dependent on russian gas. there are countries which are less dependent and there are countries which are not dependent, like the ones which are to the far west portugal, spain and so on. we are in the group of countries which are fully dependent on russian gas, and this has been historically because of the state of economy, relations from the past and so on. and during this crisis, it s always a possibility for, an opportunity for changes and for improvement. so that is why we have started a lot of infrastructural projects in order to disperse and to diversify our energy supply, especially in terms of gas supply, by building new interconnectors
absolutely, so i come back to this question russia is a dangerous enemy. and i m going to ask you again directly, right now, do you think russia is meddling in north macedonian politics as your own president has accused them? so third countries here, including russia, has always had the interests of having frozen conflicts on the balkans. and this has always been. if we see it from time perspective, there are countries where the ties are, and the public opinion is, more strong towards russia, on the balkans. and there are countries where this opinion and this influence is less significant. in north macedonia, the infrastructure of this influence, and when i mean on infrastructure, then i mean on political parties.
if you have asked me this question a year ago, then my answer would have maybe been more neutral. but now, after the new geostrategic situation which we have in europe, and after the invasion of russia on ukraine, and after all the security, energy and economic issues which are at stake in europe, it is clear and it has been confirmed by all the leaders of the european union, starting from president macron, chancellor scholz, the president of the european commission, madame von der leyen, that european union is not complete without the western balkans, without north macedonia, without albania, montenegro and all the other countries. and this is the reality. yes, but you ve been in the queue since 2005. that s when you got your candidate status for the european union. and here we sit in october 2022, and many of your own people are still deeply sceptical about whether,
we are members of nato and we have fully aligned our foreign policy with the european union. even today, if you see balkans, this is not the balkans of 30 years ago. slovenia, croatia, montenegro, north macedonia, albania, bulgaria, greece are members of nato. slovenia, croatia, bulgaria, greece are members of the european union. north macedonia, albania, montenegro, serbia are negotiating with the european union. so it is not the same balkan as 30 years ago. just getting back to the point of russia being a dangerous enemy, i think your own president accused russia in the summer, when there were street protests in skopje and other cities in north macedonia over government policies, including the deal on the eu, the president accused russia of influencing elements