MOSCOW, February 9. /TASS/. Russia believes the issue of renaming Macedonia should be discussed by the UN Security Council, Russian Ambassador to Macedonia Sergei Bazdnikin told TASS.

"We assume that the 1993 UN Security Council Resolution 845 contains a request to the UN secretary general to brief the Council on the progress in resolving the issue of Macedonia’s official name. This request must be complied with, of course. It is commonly known that the UN Security Council’s decisions are binding for everyone. When this is going to happen depends on many factors, including technical and organizational," he said.

The agreement on changing the country’s name to the Republic of Northern Macedonia (the Prespa agreement) was signed on the shores of Lake Prespa by the foreign ministers of Macedonia and Greece on June 17, 2018. On January 11, 2019, Macedonia’s parliament approved the relevant amendments to the country’s constitution. The Prespa agreement was ratified by the Greek parliament on January 25.

The ratification of the document marked the end of the dispute between Macedonia and Greece over the name of the former Yugoslav republic, which had dragged on for over twenty years. Athens argued that its neighboring country’s name should be changed and opposed its accession to the European Union and NATO.