Slovakia accuses Russia of election interference

BRATISLAVA: Slovakia on Monday accused Moscow of interfering in its parliamentary election and summoned a Russian embassy official, following remarks by Russia's foreign intelligence service director about US "interference" in the country.
"We consider such deliberately disseminated misinformation to be inadmissible interference by the Russian Federation in the electoral process in the Slovak Republic," Slovakia's foreign ministry said in a statement.
The populist Smer-SD party led by Slovak former prime minister Robert Fico scored 23 percent in Saturday's vote, beating the centrist Progressive Slovakia at 18 percent.
In a statement issued before the election, Russia's foreign intelligence chief Sergei Naryshkin had labelled Progressive Slovakia "the US proxies" and said Washington had "increased its interference in the domestic political situation in Slovakia".
The foreign ministry in Bratislava in response on Monday summoned a Russian embassy official and called on Moscow to "stop disinformation activities aimed at Slovakia".
"The ministry strongly protests against the false statement of Russian intelligence, which calls into question the integrity of free and democratic elections in Slovakia," the statement said.
Moscow rejected the accusations made by the Slovak government.
"Unlike some of Slovakia's current allies, we do not interfere in the domestic affairs of other countries and we do not engage in regime change," the Russian embassy in Bratislava said as quoted by Russian news agencies.