Nov 07 2008
Czech arms maker manager ran business with Russian mafia
Prague – Viktor Labsky, security manager of the ZVI arms producer in Vsetin, north Moravia, owned a company for three years with Andrei Korplyakov whom the Czech intelligence labelled as a hard-core Russian mafioso, the daily Mlada fronta Dnes (MfD) reports.
It was deputy defence minister Martin Bartak who sold a share in the respective company to Korplyakov, the paper adds.
Yet both Labsky and Bartak passed a security vetting of the National Security Office (NBU) to be allowed to handle classified data.
Bartak denies any connection with Russian mafia, the daily notes.
Defence Minister Vlasta Parkanova (Christian Democrats, KDU-CSL) said she was prepared to speak with Bartak about the property transfer to Korplyakov.
The name Korplyakov also appeared in a secret report of the BIS civilian counter-intelligence service a couple of years ago. BIS then warned against this “ambassador” of the most influential Russian mafia called the Association for the 21st century.
“He headed a very aggressive group with versatile crime past,” former BIS chief Karel Randak told the paper, adding that the Russian mafioso was obsessed with arms.
Civic Democrat (ODS) chairman and current PM Mirek Topolanek mentioned the name Korplyakov two years ago when he accused Social Democrat (CSSD) head Jiri Paroubek of contacts with mafia bosses.
Korplyakov then ran business with Paroubek´s acquaintance Vaclav Kocka Jr. who was recently murdered after the presentation of Paroubek´s book.
Bartak sold a share in the MCS company (current ExotTop), which he set up with Labsky, to Korplyakov for 20,000 crowns. He said the transaction was carried out via a lawyer so he had no idea in whose hands the share would get.
Labsky told MfD that he met Korplyakov maximally three times during the three years when they were involved in MCS together.
The paper writes that Labsky is now managing the ZVI arms maker supplying strategic armament for the Czech military, and consequently, he has access to classified information about these arms.
Randak said he considered such contacts a security risk, MfD adds.
($1=19.490 crowns)
Czech arms maker manager ran business with Russian mafia – published: 07.11.2008, 08:40 | updated: 07.11.2008 08:43:17 – Author: ČTK – This story was found at: http://www.ceskenoviny.cz/news/index_view.php?id=342979
