(Reuters) -Slovakia’s Foreign Ministry summoned a Russian embassy representative on Monday to protest over statements made ahead of Saturday’s election by the head of Russia’s SVR foreign intelligence service, Sergei Naryshkin.
The ministry said the comments, which it said were false, came during a pre-election moratorium on information that may benefit or harm candidates. It accused Russia of spreading disinformation, which Russia rejected.
The SVR had said on Sept. 28, in a statement on its website, that the United States had instructed allies to work with local business and political circles to “ensure the voting results demanded by the Americans” and that the pro-Western liberal Progresivne Slovensko (Progressive Slovakia) should win.
The statement called the party U.S. proxies.
“The department of diplomacy strongly protests against the false statement of Russian intelligence which cast doubt on the integrity of the free and democratic election in Slovakia,” the Slovak ministry said.
“We consider such deliberately spread disinformation to be unacceptable interference by the Russian Federation in the election process.”
It called on Russia to cease disinformation activities aimed at Slovakia.
The Russian embassy in Slovakia rejected the Slovak allegations.
“Unlike some of Slovakia’s current allies, we do not interfere with internal affairs of other countries, we do not take part in regime changes and various ‘colour’ revolutions,” it said on Facebook.
The SMER-SSD party of leftist former prime minister Robert Fico, who has pledged to end Slovak military support for Ukraine and opposes sanctions on Russia, won the most votes in Saturday’s election.
Progressive Slovakia came second. The party did not immediately reply to a request for comment on the SVR statements.
On Monday, Fico received a mandate from President Zuzana Caputova to begin negotiations on forming a coalition government. His most likely partners are the moderate-left HLAS party, which analysts say would tame any policy change, and a small party of pro-Russian nationalists.
(Reporting by Jan Lopatka and Jason Hovet in Prague, additonal reporting by Maxim Rodionov in London;Editing by Gareth Jones and Alison Williams)
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