SDSM: Private Company Pays $1.56 Million a Year for US Lobbying, Linked to Antimony and Military Equipment
Kuzeska cited the FARA registry. She also claims there's no official confirmation of a Mickoski meeting with Rubio or Landau.
SDSM spokesperson Bogdanka Kuzeska, at a press conference, presented data from the US Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) database, claiming that "Mercury Public Affairs" is hired by Skopje-based firm ATS Group DOOEL — at a monthly fee of $130,000, up from a previous $85,000, amounting to roughly $1.56 million a year, covering 2026 and 2027.
According to Kuzeska, ATS Group is a private military-equipment company owned by Shefshet Demirovski. She linked the lobbying firm's engagement to ATS Group's interests in the defence industry, to the antimony development project, and to a project called "Geta," about which she made claims regarding spent public funds.
Kuzeska further claimed that checks of publicly available White House, State Department, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Deputy Secretary Christopher Landau schedule pages, Pentagon, DFC, Congress, and the FARA registry itself showed no official announcement of a meeting between Prime Minister Mickoski and Rubio, Landau, or any other senior US administration official during his 15-22 September visit.
According to earlier data, the same lobbying firm had previously been engaged for "developing, structuring and implementing the federal political agenda" and promoting Macedonia as a US security partner, at a then-monthly fee of $85,000 — now raised to $130,000. An official government response to Kuzeska's specific claims, based on available sources, has not yet come.
MKNews Hub · Politics · September 25, 2026
