Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/829623
3 agency GRU by the cybersecu- rity firm CrowdStrike, while security firms SecureWorks, ThreatConnect, and Fireeye's Mandiant have also said the group is sponsored by the Rus- sian government. Originally, a report in intelli- gence specialist IntelligenceOn- line.com claimed sources from MI6 and the CIA had warned that Russia was meddling in the Maltese general elections. But the suggestion that a Rus- sian whistleblower who alleged that the PM's wife is the benefi- cial owner of an offshore com- pany, had a suspicious link to external influences, was never properly established in the In- telligenceOnline.com report. The Egrant allegation is now the subject of a magisterial in- quiry, while two other inquiries are probing findings in FIAU reports that Muscat's chief of staff, Keith Schembri, accepted bribes from the sale of Maltese passports to wealthy Russians, and could have laundered mon- ey paid to Adrian Hillman, the former Allied Newspapers di- rector. The Observer's source opined that Russia was "angry over the contract for a gas terminal and power station on the island, which went to Socar, an Azer- baijani oil company." The newspaper also men- tioned an unreported event, saying that on 15 April last year, Malta impounded a ship- ment of 136 tonnes of Chinese- produced aluminium bullets destined for Syria and the As- sad regime, after a tip-off from a European intelligence agency. "It is claimed that Malta's ac- tions dismayed Russia, which made strenuous representations to have the cargo released." When Malta refused Russian warships permission to refuel while on their way to Syria back in October 2016, the Russian foreign ministry accused it of falling "victim to the west's in- formation war". "The Russian prime minister, Dmitri Medvedev, is under- stood to have made his coun- try's displeasure known during a meeting with Muscat and other government officials and other government representa- tives in Moscow," The Observer wrote. The Russian embassy in Malta categorically rejected the alle- gations against it as unfounded and untrue. "Russia has never interfered into Malta's domes- tic affairs and has no intention to do so in the future," the em- bassy said. maltatoday, MONDAY, 29 MAY 2017 News PORTOMASOLIVE.COM REGISTER NOW 1 2 3 Register your personal account JOIN DEPOSIT EARN CASHBACK Place your deposit, play & participate in our promotions You're always a winner at Portomaso Live You're always a winner source tells Guardian THIS IS A PAID ADVERT Vitals denies Busuttil's suggestions its officials hold Pilatus Bank accounts VITALS Global Healthcare has f lat-out denied PN lead- er Simon Busuttil's sugges- tion that any off its owners have a bank account with Pilatus Bank. In a brief statement, it said that no VGH owners, directors or management members have, or ever had, a bank account with Pilatus Bank. Busuttil on Saturday urged journalists to inves- tigate whether VGH – the investors behind the pri- vatisation of the St Luke's, Karen Grech and Gozo hos- pitals – hold an account at Pilatus Bank. "Isn't it strange that in 2014 Joseph Muscat re- placed Godfrey as health minister by none other than Konrad Mizzi, who then went on to oversee the privatisation of the Gozo hospital and two other hospitals to Vitals Global Healthcare?" he asked. "In a debate with Mus- cat on Xarabank last night I asked him, in fact, if by any chance Vitals Global Healthcare owners too held an account at Pilatus Bank, and everyone could see how the prime minister reacted to my question." Busuttil said it would be too much of a coincidence if VGH too held accounts at the bank at the centre of allegations of kickback and money laundering made against the prime minis- ter's chief of staff Keith Schembri. He encouraged journalists to continue to investigate this possibility.