The March of prostitutes or red umbrellas march, that was held for the first time in Skopje two days ago, focused the public on the rights of women who have decided to work the “the world’s oldest profession”, but also raised the issue of freedom and women’s rights in Macedonia.
Irena Cvetkovic gave a statement as a representative of the Coalition for Sexual and Health Rights of Marginalized Communities which supported the protest. It is interesting to see the background of this whole organized at once and uncommon public event. One of the main sponsors of the coalition that supported the protest is the Open Society Institute, whose executive director is Vladimir Milčin.
The Striking fact is that you can see the tax return of OSI filed for fiscal 2012, in which states that Soros Macedonia earned income MKD 296 866 982 or EUR 4,811,458 for just one year. The application shows that MKD 116,988,553 million or EUR 1,896,086 was spent for donations. The tax return has the signature and the name of its CEO Vladimir Milčin.
How almost EUR 5 million are spent and for what
It is known that Soros Macedonia or OSI is close to the Social Democrats, and it has been shown many times to fund network of non-governmental organizations, media and experts in order to create a negative opinion about the government policy and creating an atmosphere of opposition, for which the sum of nearly 5 million is extremely beneficial. The institute can not give an accurate report on how this money was spent, but the organizations which received money from Soros Macedonia can be determined.
The list includes Transparency Macedonia, where Gordan Georgiev MP from SDSM, Vanco Uzunov former president of this organization and now vice president of SDSM, Guner Ismail member of several SDSM bodies, Ferid Muhić former adviser of Branko Crvenkovski, Saso Ordanoski and Dane Taleski SDSM, are current members.
Furthermore another organization is MCET – Macedonian Center for European Training, whose Director until recently was Lidija Dimova, current president of the Council for European Integration of SDSM, and Liliana Shekerinska – Djordjevic the sister of Vice President of SDSM is a member of the executive board of the organization that received money from Soros Macedonia.
Another organization that received money from Soros Macedonia is the Macedonian Helsinki Committee without an international license Helsinki Committee, whose board includes the journalist Borjan Jovanovski, Ljubomir Frchkovski who is a member of several party councils of SDSM and Margarita Caca-Nikolovska which is current president of the SDSM Council on political system. Iskra Gesovska, executive director of the non-governmental cultural organization “Kontrapunkt”, Lina Unovska wife of the director and minister in the government of SDSM, Slobodan Unkovski. How much of the total budget of Soros in 2012 amounting to EUR 4,811,458 was allocated to these organizations is an enigma.
They admit taking money from Soros Open Society Institute, and spit on the Government
The editor of Plusinfo and the newspaper Free Press, Branko Geroski explicitly stated that Soros is a financier of his work.
Geroski in his column, “Hey, guys, enough spending money on nonsense” published on Plusinfo, writes that the decision of the Soros Foundation directly supports the critically minded media and is historically important for the survival of these media.
Geroski , who is a public criticizer of the current government and a strong supporter of the policies of SDSM, appearing at several opposition meetings where he had his own addressing, this time has clearly recognized what the general public already knows that critically minded media against the government, including Plusinfo, are directly supported by the Soros Foundation.
The web-portals Libertas and Plus info are “children” of the Soros Open Society Institute
Both projects are fully funded by Soros Macedonia of Vlade Milčin. Libertas is a sister site of Plus info. Both sites have the same address registered in Marnet, Franklin Roosevelt Street No. 5.
Who took the money from the budget of Soros and how much of it remains secret. Although we contacted the Foundation Open Society and asked explanation on how this money is spent, we got only a brief response that their official website published an annual report, which, as we were told by the Foundation, has published in details. However, the annual report does not contain in detail how the funds were spent. The way these funds are allocated remains mystery and the total amounts that financed the network of non-governmental organizations and experts close to the opposition.