OREANDA-NEWS. Czech President Milos Zeman advised the head of the country's Information Security Service (Bezpečnostní informační služba, BIS) Michal Koudelke to investigate economic crimes in the republic, and not to search for foreign spies. He stated this when speaking on the Czech television channel.

“I told the Prime Minister that Mr. Koudelka, instead of fictitiously prosecuting Russian and Chinese spies, would focus on economic crimes in the Czech Republic”, he said. So the president reacted to the proposal of the government to upgrade the head of BIS to the rank of general.

90% of the activities of the Information Security Service are dedicated to Russian and Chinese spies, Zeman noted. Instead, he said, counterintelligence should devote more time to fighting corruption. “This will finally be useful”, he said. During the speech, the head of BIS also stated that the activities of the Russian and Chinese special services pose the most serious security risk for the Czech Republic. The Russian Embassy in the Czech Republic said that Koudelka’s statement “has nothing to do with reality”.