Foreign Minister Jan Lipavski confirmed to Aktuálně.cz and Respekt that one of his employees had to leave the office. According to the minister, he cooperated with foreign powers. It is not clear what damage his activities caused to the Czech Republic. Even if he is indicted. Lipavski declined to comment on details, citing security reasons.
“I can confirm that I have decided to take measures that officials who cooperated with foreign powers are no longer working for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.For security reasons, I will not comment on any further information,” Lipavski said. (Pirates) ) told the editor.
The minister answered a question whether he could confirm that someone had to leave his office because of suspicions that he was in contact with the Russian secret service. I didn’t want to specify a job because It’s also not exactly what the person in question was supposed to do or who he’s going with.
According to Deník N, a long-time ministry official, cooperated With Russia’s foreign intelligence service reporting directly to President Vladimir Putin. Civil servants repeatedly received money for information obtained from the ministry. However, his activities were discovered and terminated by the Security Information Service (BIS), and he had to leave Chernin Palace.
It is not clear if he has been indicted for his activities. Evidence collected only by BIS and not by the police cannot be used in court.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has long attracted the attention of Russian journalists. For example, according to his 2017 annual report for BIS, the company’s computers faced two hacker attacks on his network. Counterintelligence has at least traced him to Russia. In the first case, the hacker most likely broke into his system in early 2016, and by the time he was discovered a year later, had accessed 150 employee mailboxes, including attachments. I have copied the email.
According to BIS, they obtained data suitable for further attacks and a list of possible targets across government agencies. This office was also the target of a second attack. According to intelligence agencies, it is clear from the information available that it originated from Russian intelligence services.
Rosatom Information
In the Czech Republic, the civil counterintelligence agency BIS also deals with monitoring dangerous contacts between people close to the state and foreign forces. In the past, for similar reasons as now, one of her employees had to leave the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the energy company ČEZ.
In 2020, the semi-national power company specifically addressed the issue of data breaches. The person in question was to reveal details about an upcoming nuclear tender for the expansion of the Dukovani nuclear power plant.
3 independent sources Respect He confirmed that he had handed them over to representatives of the Russian company Rosatom, who had taken great interest in the contract. We were in touch. The two must have known each other for a long time.
The company was informed of the person’s non-standard contact with representatives of Rosatom after his activities were uncovered by Czech security forces.
