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.
