A day earlier Macedonia's President Gjorge Ivanov refused to allow a coalition of Social Democrats and parties representing the country's big ethnic Albanian minority to form a government because of their pledge to allow wider official use of the Albanian language.

Ivanov's move, made during protests of Macedonians against the coalition in the capital Skopje and towns where ethnic Macedonians are a majority, was criticized by the European Union.

"With active cooperation of the EU and NATO officials, an 'Albanian platform' created in Tirana, in the office of the (Albanian) prime minister, is being imposed on Macedonians," a statement by the Russian foreign ministry said on Thursday.