'Onyshchenko' case: NSA head expected to present report at closed gov't session
Skopje, 22 November 2022 (MIA) - National Security Agency (NSA) head Viktor Dimovski is scheduled Tuesday at a closed government session to report on the case involving the issuance of a Macedonian citizenship to the controversial Ukrainian politician, Oleksandr Onyshchenko.
Prime Minister Dimitar Kovachevski has said that he asked for an in-depth report on the work of NSA to be presented, noting the government cannot release reports and information from closed sessions given the confidentiality of the reports presented there.
He mentioned that citizenship had been issued based on four positive opinions forwarded to be reviewed at a government session by four different institutions.
According to Kovachevski, someone must be held accountable in the case which is already under investigation.
A new head of the National Security Agency is due to be appointed after a selection process is completed because Dimovski soon will travel to France, where he will be the new ambassador of North Macedonia.
On Monday, several media outlets reported that two NSA agents were suspended as part of an investigation into the issuance and approval of a Macedonian citizenship to Onyshchenko.
Last week, Dimovski said that an internal probe into a possible breach in the so called Onyshchenko case concluded that the final level of the security checkup wasn’t respected and that NATO partners weren’t consulted before a positive opinion was issued. The individual who signed an approval has been identified. A security checkup before positive opinion is issued approving Macedonian passport to be awarded to someone is done in several levels and also requires signatures from ten NSA members.
This past week, Dimovski also presented a report at a closed session of the committee supervising the work of NSA and the Intelligence Agency, which later turned out that its audio was streamed live on YouTube. The case was reported to the police sector for computer crime and an investigation has been opened, the Interior Ministry told MIA.
Onyshchenko, who is blacklisted by the United States due to his pro-Russian ties and meddling into the 2020 US elections, was awarded Macedonian citizenship as an award-winning equestrian, proposed by the Equestrian Federation.