When Robert Fico sat opposite Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin in May, the Slovak prime minister said relations between their countries should extend beyond energy supplies. He told the Russian president that steps had already been taken to restore military attaches at their respective embassies. Five months later, the arrangement is now taking shape.
Slovakia has sent two military officers — Brigadier General Slavomir Staviarsky and his deputy, Colonel Ivo Gahir — to Moscow and is preparing to receive a Russian military attache in Bratislava, restoring military-diplomatic representation for the first time since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. The move has prompted criticism from opposition politicians, who question what Slovakia stands to gain. They warn that Russia could use the arrangement to strengthen its intelligence operations.
"One additional military attache does not fundamentally change that broader picture; the appointment's main significance is the political signal it sends," Martin Poliacik, a former Slovak MP affiliated with the opposition Progressive Slovakia party, told DW. "NATO allies should be concerned both about the activities of the incoming officer and about the political environment in which he will operate," he went on. The appointments were reported by Slovak news website Aktuality.sk on October 8.
Both officers appear on the Slovak Defense Ministry's published list of military diplomats serving abroad. According to public broadcaster STVR, Staviarsky has been in Moscow since the beginning of August. Meanwhile, opposition defense experts quoted by Aktuality.sk named the incoming Russian officer as Maxim Verezan.
Verezan has received Slovak approval, according to the opposition sources cited by the website, but was not yet listed among accredited military attaches. Aktuality.sk says that the Defense Ministry has not answered its question as to when Verezan is due to arrive in Bratislava. The prospect has revived memories of a Russian espionage scandal involving Sergei Solomasov, the Russian embassy's deputy military attache in Bratislava, a few years ago.
Solomasov was filmed recruiting and handing over money to Bohus Garbar, a contributor to the pro-Russian website Hlavne spravy in 2021. Solomasov was expelled from Slovakia the following year. Garbar was subsequently convicted of espionage and bribery.
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