PS: MP Stevulova Receives Letter from SIS Officers, PS to Initiate Inspection

Bratislava, 5 December (TASR) - Opposition Progressive Slovakia (PS) party MPs from the special parliamentary committee for supervising the Slovak Intelligence Service (SIS) will initiate an inspection at SIS based on a letter allegedly sent by SIS employees to PS MP Zuzana Stevulova in which they describe what is taking place at the organisation, Stevulova herself told a press conference on Friday. "These disillusioned SIS officers are describing how SIS - after Pavol Gaspar came and took over as SIS director - were obliged to significantly restrict investigations into Russian intelligence services. The active operations of Russian agents in Slovakia since his appointment come as no surprise to us. Based on his instructions, we've had to shift our operative activities towards partner foreign intelligence services," she said with reference to the content of the letter. Stevulova also recalled recent statements in the media by former head of the National Security Analytical Centre Juraj Kulik, who gave a similar account of the situation. Another member of the parliamentary committee for supervising SIS, MP Jaroslav Spisiak (PS), thinks that the public should pay attention to these suspicions. He warned that the committee's oversight activities are currently "unenforceable, ineffective and virtually non-existent". According to Stevulova, if the committee doesn't approve a schedule of checks and doesn't carry out an inspection, this can be proposed and carried out by two opposition MPs. Opposition Freedom and Solidarity (SaS) party MP Maria Kolikova, who is also a member of the parliamentary committee, thinks that SIS is downplaying Russian threats. In her opinion, it's not in order for SIS to treat all foreign secret services equally, publicly demonstrating the same attitude towards allied secret services as towards others. She announced that SaS will demand an extraordinary parliamentary session in order to discuss the issue. jrg/df