A scandal in Slovakia that could discredit the European Union in the Caucasus
July 6, 2020
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In the spotlight – Miroslav Lajcak
An entertaining “scandal threatening to discredit the European bureaucracy is unfolding now in Slovakia. The other day, Ashot Grigoryan (physicist, businessman, philanthropist and public figure who has been living in Slovakia since 1993) filed an application with the prosecutor. He reported this to local media. The bottom line is a request to deal with the illegal activities of the former Minister of Foreign Affairs of the country, the former chairman of the OSCE, the former chairman of the 72nd session of the UN General Assembly, Miroslav Lajchak.
According to Grigoryan, the latter actually bears full responsibility for the supply of arms to Azerbaijan. The fact is that this country is in a state of frozen conflict with Armenia over the Nagorno-Karabakh problem. Therefore, the OSCE by its decisions limits the supply of arms to these two states of the South Caucasus. In fact, this is a ban.
Nevertheless. Starting in 2017, information appeared in the media in some countries that, in violation of international agreements, unauthorized sales of large-caliber weapons systems manufactured in Slovakia to Azerbaijan were carried out (see, for example, HERE).
The cargo consisted of 36 units of modern Dana M-1 self-propelled howitzers and 30 Vampire RM-70 missile launchers (both on Tatra chassis). The manufacturer of these formidable systems is the Slovak company MSM Group, s.r.o., which is owned by the Czechoslovak Group, a.s., a Czech businessman Jaroslav Strnad.
From Slovakia, all this was taken by the plane of the Azerbaijani airline Silk Way, which is trying not to disclose information about its owners. However, there is reason to believe that a significant share in it is controlled by the family of the President of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev.
The transfer took place according to the following scheme: the board flew to Bratislava, where “goods” were loaded into it. Then he flew to Tel Aviv, where he stood for several hours, and then took a course with new documents to the capital of Azerbaijan – Baku. From there – again to Slovakia. In the period from September 2017 to June 2018, the plane traveled this route between Bratislava, Tel Aviv and Baku 66 times!
However, in Europe, the arms seller could not obtain the so-called “End-user Certificate of defense products” necessary for the sale of military equipment to Azerbaijan. Thus, there is fraud: weapons came to Azerbaijan through a third country – Israel.
As a rule, such a document is signed by the Minister of Foreign Affairs. In this case, it was Miroslav Lajchak. He signed a certificate for the Israeli arms company Elbit as an end user, which in fact was only the intermediary party to the contract.
Particular piquancy is attached to the fact that the deal was approved by the person directly responsible for ensuring that European states do not sell weapons to hot spots and points of frozen conflicts.
In other words, Lajcak, being the chairman of the OSCE, certainly should not have allowed the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Slovak Republic (that is, himself) to participate in the illegal operation. Moreover, the OSCE Chairperson, after discovering such actions by the Minister, was to bring to justice such a Minister (that is, himself) and the country (Slovakia) for violating the embargo.
Grigoryan noted that this is an international scandal, and now it’s interesting to see what will be the reaction of the prosecutor’s office, the court, and the cabinet of Prime Minister Matovich, who for a long time built his image of a corruption fighter and sharply opposed the Smer party, one of the largest whose figures were Laichak. Will Matovich take the opportunity to give the case a corresponding resonance as a scandal of international or, at least, pan-European level?
July 6, 2020
Ekaterina Polevaya
regnum.ru/news/polit/3002777.html
English translation – LOUSAVOR AVEDIS:
