- PS plans to submit a tougher punishment for espionage in the Criminal Code.
- He is reacting to the activities of the Russian ambassador Sergej Andreyev in Slovakia.
- PS officials criticized the government for appointing Andreyev to this position.
- Peter Bátor described him as a security risk.
The opposition PS plans to submit a proposal to amend the Criminal Code at the next meeting of the National Council (NR) of the Slovak Republic. He wants the crime of espionage to be punished more severely. He is thus reacting to the new ambassador of the Russian Federation operating in Slovakia, Sergej Andreyev.
MP for PS Tomáš Valášek and member of the movement Peter Bátor criticized him again. They believe that, given his past, he should never have become an ambassador on Slovak territory. They consider the fact that this happened to be a huge failure of the current government coalition. They informed about it at Tuesday’s press conference.
Bátor pointed to Andrejev’s previous work in Poland. “Building a network of secret agents and collaborators of the Russian secret services in Poland, coordinated and disseminated propaganda directly by the ambassador. What do all these activities have in common? One man, and that is Sergey Andreyev.” he declared. According to Bátor, his activity in Slovakia is a threat to the security of the state. According to Valášek, it is reasonable to expect that Andrejev will continue the same activities in Slovakia.
Both criticized the government for allowing Andrejev to become ambassador to Slovakia. “Sovereign foreign policy would never agree to this, a sane domestic security policy would never allow such an influence operation on the territory of its own republic, and even the terrified state policy would be much stricter and stricter, because it would perceive the concerns that come with the entry of such a person to a diplomatic post in Slovakia.” explained Bátor. According to him, the government is satisfied with this, because it is the government that created Slovakia as an “eldorado” for the activities of Russian and other intelligence services.
In this context, the PS plans to propose stricter penalties for espionage. According to Valášek, this is punished sufficiently in principle, but justice fails in practice. “At the next meeting of the National Council, the one in April, progressive Slovakia will present an amendment or a proposal to amend the Criminal Code so that the crime of espionage is really punished as it belongs to the heinous nature of this act at a time when a completely obvious and open hybrid war is being waged against this country by the Russian Federation,” announced the deputy.
Prezident SR Peter Pellegrini received the new ambassadors to the Slovak Republic at an induction audience in the Presidential Palace on Tuesday. Credentials were handed over to him by Ambassadors Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Russian Federation in the Slovak Republic Sergej Andreyev and of the State of Israel in the Slovak Republic Jacob Yanovsky.
The PS criticized the appointment of Andreyev to the post earlier. According to him, he should never have received permission to perform it. Bátor already pointed out that Andrejev had previously served as Russia’s ambassador to Poland, where, according to him, he attacked the state and its history and built an intelligence network with the aim of doing harm.
