FBIS4-31295 "dreeu110_d_94003"
FBIS-EEU-94-110 Daily Report 3 Jun 1994
SLOVAKIA

Report on Russian Mafia Control Rejected

Report on Russian Mafia Control Rejected AU0706153994 Bratislava PRAVDA in Slovak 3 Jun 94 p 1 AU0706153994 Bratislava PRAVDA Slovak BFN [Article by "jo, jc": "Are We Under the Control of the Russian Mafia?"] [Text] Bratislava--The day before yesterday, we published a report on the deliberations of a U.S. Senate subcommission that dealt with the expansion of Russian organized crime on the territory of the United States and the whole of Europe. As reported by the U.S. press, at the meeting, Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) Director Louis Freeh expressed, among other things, the view that the Russian mafia has already seized control over the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic. In view of the steadily growing number of signals about the import of international organized crime to our territory, we asked Interior Minister Ladislav Pittner and Nikolay Trutsuk, councillor at the Russian Federation Embassy in Slovakia, to comment. L. Pittner: The Slovak Ministry of Interior recently signed an agreement on cooperation with the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs. It did so for the very reasons that have prompted the FBI to seek the signing of an analogous agreement. Indeed, there exist serious indications that the Russian mafia (or mafia from the republics of the former USSR) operates also in Slovakia. This finds its expression in activities such as drug-trafficking and the theft of automobiles and their transfer to the eastern parts of Europe and other areas, about which we have only signals from intelligence sources thus far, which makes it difficult to be more specific. The findings of the interior ministries of a number of countries show that the operation of these mafias is becoming a problem, with which not only the United States but also the whole world, in fact, will have to deal with all due seriousness. As for the formulation that the Russian mafia has seized control over Slovakia, it is, I think, too strong a term, which is perhaps also due to a certain "journalistic inventiveness." The situation cannot be characterized in that way. However, the existence of certain indiciations about the mafia's operation is a fact. N. Trutsuk: First of all, I would like to object to the term "Russian mafia," which is being used in the local press more and more frequently even if the authors of the relevant articles usually have in mind criminal elements from all of the Commonwealth of Independent States republics. I am able to state with all responsibility that, according to our statistics and findings, citizens of the Russian Federation or of Russian nationality represent a negligible fraction of the foreign nationals who commit criminal activity on the territory of Slovakia. As regards the alleged statements by the FBI director, I dare claim that it is probably another journalistic hoax, similar to the one fabricated recently by the correspondent of a certain news agency about the alleged statement by a World Bank representative regarding the situation in four Slovak banks. Had some international mafia really seized control of Slovakia, your authorities responsible for the security situation in the country would have sounded the alarm a long time ago. If they have not, it apparently means that they have no reason to do so.