Mistoqsi mill-ġurnalisti l-Prim Ministru Joseph Muscat wieġeb għal artiklu fis-sit intelligenceonline.com. Hemm qed ikun allegat li hemm forzi Russi imdaħħla fil-kampanja elettorali ta’ pajjiżna.
Joseph Muscat ikkonferma li s-servizzi sigrieti ta’ żewġ pajjiżi ħbieb Malta infurmaw lill-Gvern Malti li din l-istorja setgħet inħolqot wara li Malta rrifjutat li tipprovdi fuel lill-vapuri Russi li kienu sejrin is-Srija.
Kompla jispjega li l-attitudni ta’ Presidenza Maltija li għaġġlet biex iffaċilitat programm ta’ visa waiver mal-Ukrajna urtat lil xi nies, u qed jingħad li ta’ dan seta’ kien hemm tpattija. Il-Prim Ministru kien kawt u meqjus fuq din l-aħbar li titfa’ f’dawl ġdid dak allegat fl-aħħar ġimgħat.
Intant, dan huwa dak irrapportat:
Russians suspected of sowing confusion in Malta
The political storms sweeping the small Mediterranean island of Malta worry Western intelligence agencies, who suspect Russia could be behind it all.
British and American intelligence agencies, with MI6 and CIA at the forefront, are concerned about possible Russian interference in the election process currently underway on the Mediterranean island of Malta. Legislative elections are due to be held there on June 3.
In the midst of the campaign, Michelle Muscat, the wife of prime minister Joseph Muscat, and her chief-of-staff, Keith Schembri, have been accused of financial misdemeanors by the opposition. Schembri’s adversaries say he holds a stake in a company in the British Virgin Islands which allegedly launders money. Schembri, a former businessman, denies the firm has done anything illegal.
For some time now Michelle Muscat has been accused of profiting from the largesse of an offshore company, Egrant Inc (which was mentioned in the Panama Papers) that received funds from the family of Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev. The Muscats deny the accusations.
The allegations were made by a Russian accountant, Maria E., who long worked in Cyprus and is now in Malta, where she previously served with Pilatus Bank. At first she did not provide any documents, but the accusations came shortly before a massive leak of Maltese data that appeared in the European press.
Maria E now works for a recently-incorporated firm, Mtacc Ltd., which belongs to another Russian national, Alex Zaslavsky, with whom she also shares an apartment.
Since Maria E’s allegations, which were initially anonymous and presented as a tipoff from a whistle blower, the Maltese authorities have confiscated her passport. The Russian embassy immediately protested.
MI6 and the CIA are highly concerned by what the Russian couple have been up to in Malta. Some officials perceive it as a move to destabilise Malta’s pro-Western prime minister that comes from on high in the Kremlin, especially because it has occurred at a time when Muscat has been openly opposed to Moscow. Malta, which has held the rotating presidency of the European Union (EU) since January, has refused to allow Russian vessels crossing the Mediterranean to join operations in Syria to stop over and refuel on the island. That stirred Moscow’s fury as it deemed such refueling vital.
Russian Prime Minister Dimitri Medvedev publicly voiced his anger when Malta turned away the RFS Dubra a tanker that was accompanying the aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov’s task force.
The Russian foreign ministry condemned Malta’s decision saying in a statement that the island had “fallen victim to an information war led by the West.”
The Maltese PM is now seen as firmly in the NATO and EU camp. And so intelligence analysts are assessing whether he is the victim of another “information attack” by Russia because of his pro-West alignment. Malta plays a key strategic role and is a pillar of the British Commonwealth in the region, although it is officially neutral under its constitution.
