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| Slovak authorities arrest associates of the 'pro-Russian' ex-premier |
| 2023-08-21 |
| Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited. by Oleg Kvavich [REGNUM] Companions of the former Prime Minister of Slovakia Robert Fico were accused of attempting a coup d'état. Fico himself, whose party leads the polls on the eve of the early elections, called it a "police coup." On August 17, the head of the Slovak police, Stefan Hamran, at a special press conference, announced the investigation of two cases related to an attempted coup in the country. In the first, according to Hamran, seven people appear, including the head of the Slovak National Security Directorate, as well as the current and former heads of the Slovak Information Service (SIS) - Michal Alach and Vladimir Pcholinsky . They allegedly entered into a criminal conspiracy with businessman Peter Koszcz in order to interfere with the investigation of corruption cases during Fico's time. As a result, four investigators from the National Criminal Agency of Slovakia (NAKA) were detained. They were accused of manipulating their testimony, but the court later dismissed the charges. The second case involves two people. They are accused of conspiring to get rid of a security officer who gives officials access to classified information. The ex-premier himself called the accusations a "police coup", demanded Hamran's resignation, and also initiated an extraordinary session of the Slovak parliament to discuss this issue. According to him, Slovak President Zuzana Caputova knew about the investigation in advance and gave instructions on it. Fico also believes that both of these cases are directed against him in order to prevent the victory of his Smer-SD party in the upcoming snap parliamentary elections, which will be held on September 30th. The next day, August 18, a meeting of the Security Council of Slovakia chaired by the President took place, where the cases mentioned were discussed. At the meeting, Chaputova stated that "there was no police coup in Slovakia", and Fico's words about her involvement in the investigation were called lies. “These lies will also complement the lawsuit that I will soon file against Robert Fico,” the Slovak president stressed. In turn, and O. Prime Minister and Interior Minister of Slovakia Ludovit Odor assured that the country remains a state of law. According to him, we need to wait what the prosecutor's office and the courts say. The response of the prosecutor's office was not long in coming. The head of the SIS, Michal Alach, who was on a business trip abroad on August 17, interrupted it and the next day appeared for interrogation at NAKA. There, the official was charged with creating a criminal group, abuse of power and obstruction of justice. Alach was detained, and, as Robert Fico noted, this would not have been possible without the consent of the special prosecutor's office. It is noteworthy that the head of the SIS is appointed and dismissed by the President of Slovakia on the proposal of the government of the country, but there was no Cabinet meeting on this matter. The leader of the party "For the People" Veronika Remishova drew attention to this . “The government threatens the security of people in Slovakia because if our security forces are led by a person accused of serious crimes, this fundamentally undermines the trust of foreign partners and the exchange of secret information that is important in the fight against organized crime,” she said . Most Slovak commentators are sure that the high-profile statements of the police a little over a month before the parliamentary elections are politically motivated, because Robert Fico's Smer-SD party is leading in the ratings. According to a poll conducted on August 10–14, 19.7% of Slovaks are ready to vote for Smer-SD, the pro-government Progressive Slovakia party is in second place with 16.9%, and the Hlas-SD party of another Slovak ex-premier Peter is in third Pellegrini. In addition, the collision with Fico also has a tangible Russophobic odor. The fact is that the ex-premier of Slovakia opposes the provision of military assistance to Ukraine and for the establishment of pragmatic relations with Russia. Earlier, Zuzana Chaputova expressed her concern about the "spread of Russian disinformation in Slovakia" , as well as the fact that if "populist parties" win in the upcoming elections, the country's foreign policy line may become similar to that followed by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, and support for Ukraine will weaken. According to the latest GLOBSEC survey, in Slovakia only 40% of respondents consider Russia to be the main culprit of the armed conflict in Ukraine. At the same time, about half of the surveyed Slovaks consider the United States a security threat to their country, and 66% - that the United States "is dragging Slovakia into a war with Russia because it benefits from it. " At the same time, representatives of the Slovak authorities had previously directly accused the people of Robert Fico of working for Russia. So, at the end of May 2023, the former Minister of Defense of Slovakia, Yaroslav Nagy, said that the Slovak intelligence services allegedly exposed Russia's attempt to rig the upcoming parliamentary elections in favor of the Smer-SD party. “We received intelligence information from abroad, which includes the exact person, time and place when a citizen of the Slovak Republic was in Russia in order to obtain financial resources in favor of the political party Smer-SD for election manipulation,” Nagy said then in an interview . Brussels edition of Euractive. Robert Kaliniak, a member of the Smer-SD presidium and Robert Fico's closest associate, responded by stating that the party had never accepted outside money. He called the accusations "incredible nonsense." It is worth noting that there was no continuation of the statements of Yaroslav Nagy, and the police and special services of Slovakia did not comment on them. The situation around the mutual accusations of the coup will obviously continue, because the speaker of the Slovak parliament, Boris Kollar, has scheduled its extraordinary meeting for Monday, August 21. However, it is not yet possible to say whether it will take place, since deputies from a number of pro-government parties may refuse to vote for the opening of the meeting. |
| Posted by:badanov |