Finance Ministry in Bratislava. (source: SME - Vladimír Šimíček)
Despite its withdrawal from its structures in late January 2023, Slovakia still believes that Russia’s International Investment Bank will return millions of euros to the country.
The Kremlin-dominated and Budapest-based bank was founded in 1970 by members of the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance, the Eastern Bloc’s version of today’s Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development. Former Czechoslovakia was also a member.
Slovakia decided to leave the bank due to Russia’s aggression in Ukraine. Yet, the bank is still expected to return €24 million to Slovakia.
The Ján Kuciak Investigative Journalism Centre thinks that this will probably never happen.
Unusual agreement
The centre claims that Slovakia, unlike other departed members such as Czechia, agreed to a compromise proposed by the bank. The compromise suggests that the bank start repaying its debt in five years.
“By agreeing with the bank, we can receive a relatively large part of our capital back,” Finance Ministry’s International Relations Section Director General, Martin Polónyi, has told the RTVS public broadcaster. He argues that the agreement was the only way to obtain at some money back.
Moreover, the instalments are spread over another 15 years.
However, Poland left the bank in 2000 and never received its money back.
The leaked documents, which were subject to an analysis by the centre and its partners, show that the management of Putin’s bank is not sure if the bank will survive the near future. Furthermore, the centre opines that the arguments of Slovak officials, which they use to defend the long-term repayment of Slovak public finances, coincide with arguments that, according to leaked documents and emails, the senior representatives of the near-bankrupt bank also apply.
Kicked out from Bratislava
In the past, Putin’s bank granted loans to several Slovak firms, in particular energy firms. These included Slovak Gas Holding, Slovenské Elektrárne, and Zvolenská Teplárenská. For years, Slovakia has been heavily dependent on Russian energies. The country began to reduce its dependence only after Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.
Russia’s International Investment Bank was initially supposed to be based in Bratislava. The bank opened its regional branch in Bratislava in 2015, but then Slovak president Andrej Kiska refused to ratify an international agreement.
“Russia or the bank requested a relatively broad diplomatic cover for its workers,” investigative journalist Tomáš Madleňák told RTVS. “As we know, Russia uses this diplomatic cover in its embassies to deploy its spies in the countries of the European Union.”
As a result of Kiska’s move, the bank had to leave Slovakia in 2018, moving to Budapest afterwards.
Slovakia should have left the bank years ago, acting Foreign Minister Rastislav Káčer (Demokrati) told the JOJ television channel a month ago.
“There was pressure from below, but there was reluctance on the part of the [Fico/Pellegrini] government(s),” the former diplomat added.
