Radičová: No official records to confirm US assistance to Economy Ministry

There are no official records at the Slovak Economy Ministry that would confirm the US helped Slovakia when the latter re-purchased a minority share of 49 percent of the stock in oil-pipeline company Transpetrol during the previous government. Prime Minister Iveta Radičová said the issue, which arose after US Embassy cables concerning the matter were released by WikiLeaks, should be addressed by former prime minister Robert Fico (Smer) and former economy minister Ľubomír Jahnátek (Smer).

There are no official records at the Slovak Economy Ministry that would confirm the US helped Slovakia when the latter re-purchased a minority share of 49 percent of the stock in oil-pipeline company Transpetrol during the previous government. Prime Minister Iveta Radičová said the issue, which arose after US Embassy cables concerning the matter were released by WikiLeaks, should be addressed by former prime minister Robert Fico (Smer) and former economy minister Ľubomír Jahnátek (Smer).

"The Economy Ministry has no official records registered,“ she said, as quoted by the Sme daily on May 26, adding that the Foreign Affairs Ministry was in no way involved in the alleged negotiations between the US and the Economy Ministry. According to the cables, US diplomats secretly helped the Slovak Economy Ministry to repurchase the Transpetrol shares, which at that time belonged to the bankrupt Russian oil company Yukos. The US administration is supposed to have feared that the shares might be obtained by Russian state-owned gas giant Gazprom, according to the dispatches, which were originally quoted earlier this month by the McClatchy Newspapers media group.

Source: Sme

Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
The Slovak Spectator cannot vouch for the accuracy of the information presented in its Flash News postings.

Top stories

Stock image.

Twice as many Ukrainians work in Slovakia now than before the Russian invasion.


Píšem or pišám?

"Do ľava," (to the left) I yelled, "Nie, do prava" (no, to the right), I gasped. "Dolšie," I screamed. "Nie, nie, horšie..." My Slovak girlfriend collapsed in laughter. Was it something I said?


Matthew J. Reynolds
Czech biochemist Jan Konvalinka.

Jan Konvalinka was expecting a pandemic before Covid-19 came along.


SkryťClose ad