VMRO-DPMNE has launched a series of accusations against SDSM leader Vuk Filipche: declaratively pro-European integration, while at the same time maintaining close business and political ties with pro-Russian-oriented businessmen. One eye on Brussels, the other on Moscow, say the accusers.

VMRO is portraying Filipche as a live double standard: loud about European values and reform, while his political and business associates lean pro-Russian. That picture - publicly pro-European, privately something else - is a classic Balkan political position. Not new in the region, but once it becomes the subject of a public attack, it's hard to defend.

SDSM has not directly responded to the allegations. Political attacks between the two blocs are fired off daily in Macedonia - but accusations of pro-Russian ties carry a different weight in today's European climate than they did five years ago. If VMRO manages to make that label stick, it is a weapon with a long shelf life.