Skopje, 17 November 2022 (MIA) – President Stevo Pendarovski says responsibility must be taken in the case related to the granting of Macedonian citizenship to Ukrainian national Oleksandr Onyshchenko, who is sanctioned by the United States. President Pendarovski told TV24 this is a serious blow for the credibility of a NATO member in the eyes of other allies. “This is a man who is blacklisted, linked to other individuals and groups, not only the 2016 elections in the United States. There are four sectors in the National Security Agency (NSA) and the Government also took a positive decision. This is a big blow to NSA’s credibility and responsibility must be taken. How can we look Americans in their eyes if this person interfered in their elections? There was a reaction from the Americans, who wondered how can this happen,” says Pendarovski. He adds that North Macedonia has been part of the data exchange system since its NATO accession in 2020, “something we are very proud of”. “A small country is part of the same system with the U.S. and this is an enormous added value resulting from our NATO accession. This is a rather big blunder, a systemic oversight I would say, not an individual mistake,” notes Pendarovski. The President reiterates that the process of detecting the responsibility within the NSA must “go all the way”.