Finally, the region became a very important crossroad where different other influences could be felt – mainly from the Middle East – like Qatar and Saudi Arabia. These countries have been influential in the Republic of Macedonia as well, mostly throughout the religion and on the part of the population that is Muslim. Conversely, the Russian influence was based on the renewal of the sense for belonging to the same Slavic and Orthodox community, which represents the traditional milestones in the Russian“identity poli­tics”. In the changed landscape of foreign influences and pressures in the region and especially in the Republic of Macedonia, the Russian influence was the most dominant and mainly projected throughout means of the oil and gas industry, and furthermore through the penetration in the banking sector. Russia was especially vocal during the political crisis which started in the Republic of Macedonia in 2015, changing the landscape of the inter­national security threats to the the Republic of Macedonia and redefining the national security culture. The Macedonian Political Crisis and the Rising Russian Influence During 2015 and 2016, the country lived through one of the most dramatic and serious political crises since its independence. Once a hopeful front­runner in the EU accession process, during the 2015-2016 crisis Macedo­nia’s score was nearing the low point of 2001, when violent ethnic conflict erupted in the country(Bandović and Dimitrov, 2017). The crisis, triggered by the wiretapping scandal 58 revealed by the leader of the Social Demo­cratic Union of Macedonia(SDSM), Zoran Zaev, exposed the involvement of the then-Prime Minister, Nikola Gruevski, and his closest allies from the then-ruling VMRO- DPMNE in massive scale electoral fraud, corruption, abuse of power and a score of other economic and violent offences. The dire conversations also confirmed the worries highlighted in the EU Com­mission’s Progress Reports: the deep partisation of state institutions and the judiciary, and the suppression of freedom of expression, which led the EU to define the situation in the country as“state capture” 59 . The reve­lation of the wiretapped conversations actually started by an emergency press-conference during the weekend on 31 January 2015, by the then PM Gruevski, declaring that an attempted coup had been prevented, which was directly organised by the leader of the SDSM, the largest opposition party, 58 BBC: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-31332530. 59 EU press release: http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_MEMO-18-3405_en.htm. 132 NATIONAL SECURITY CULTURES- A VIEW FROM THE BALKANS