PRAGUE, Jan 15 (CTK) — The Czech side cannot publish the contents of the agreements under which it sold to the Falkon Capital firm the Russian debt for 20 billion crowns without approval of Russia, Deputy Premier and Labour and Social Affairs Minister Vladimir Spidla told CTK today.
The disclosure of the agreements was demanded by the opposition after speculations in Russian press appeared that Falkon is connected with international terrorism, namely Saudi- born multi- millionaire Osama bin Laden.
“The information which I have at my disposal and which I had verified is that there are many firms named Falkon in the world,” Spidla told CTK.
The information came from Russian journalist Oleg Lurye, who wrote it in the weekly Novaya gazeta on Monday.
Representatives of the firm and the Czech government have dismissed the allegations.
Lurye drew the information about Falkon and Osama being connected from Algerian newspapers, according to Spidla. The opposition Civic Democratic Party (ODS) leadership called on the government today to clarify connections of Falkon Capital firm to international terrorism and release the agreements.
Both the ODS and the Quad-Coalition politicians said that they had had doubts about the debt transaction before.
The opposition Freedom Union/DEU, a member of the 4K, also called on the government to check all doubts about Falkon and to disclose the relevant agreement.
“The ODS is worried by the published information provoking doubts about this firm. We are asking the government to prove clearly and intransigently the purity of the entire operation,” ODS deputy chairman Ivan Langer said today at a special party press conference.
Though Falkon’s representatives as well as the Czech government have dismissed the Russian weekly allegation, Interior Minister Stanislav Gross has asked the Office for Foreign Relations (counter-intelligence) to check the information.
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