Just a week ago, the Ministry of the Interior assured: rumors about the Russian origin of the new traffic cameras — a živnosť (trade license) term for business operation — were opposition fabrications. On Wednesday, August 12, Interior Minister Matúš Šutaj Eštok had to admit the opposite. An analysis by the National Security Office (NBÚ) confirmed: the radar cameras tested for the Ministry of the Interior contain, alongside German components, also components from the Russian Federation. According to the minister, the department was “deceived” by the supplier, the company Soitron was removed from the project, and the purchase is now being investigated by the prosecutor’s office.
What exactly NBÚ confirmed
The NBÚ report was received by the ministry on August 11, and it is under special protection: it contains sensitive data that Slovakia must report to EU partners, since the same cameras are already fully operational in several countries. The main conclusion is simple: if launched, the device would pose a potential threat to state security, as it involves hybrid risks for a country that is a member of the EU and NATO.
The first to mention the possible Russian origin of the cameras was the opposition party Progressive Slovakia (PS) on August 5. At that time, both the Ministry of the Interior and Soitron categorically denied it. But on August 10, the ministry ordered the immediate removal of two test radars, and the purchase began to be investigated by the General Prosecutor’s Office.
Did anyone’s data leak
The best news in this story — no. At the time of the scandal, only two test cameras were operating: near the Jarovce rest area near Bratislava and on Plynárenská street. The minister assures that they were in a closed system, not connected to the Ministry of the Interior’s databases, and did not issue any fines. So if you recently passed by them, your data did not go anywhere. At least that is the official version.
What was planned — and what will happen next
To recall the scale: the automated traffic control project was funded by the EU Recovery Plan and included 279 stationary radars across the country plus a new IT system for processing violations. The contract with Soitron for 22 million euros was signed in June 2025, and even then a previous separate tender was canceled by the Public Procurement Office due to lack of transparency. It was expected that after full launch, revenue from fines would increase tenfold. For drivers, this would mean much stricter speed control on roads, so it is worth knowing the current traffic and transport rules in any case.
Šutaj Eštok emphasizes: the project itself is not canceled. The infrastructure is already built and tested, and the part of the system supplied by Soitron was bought out by the ministry — another contractor will be able to work with it. So there will be more radars on the roads, just later and, hopefully, without Russian components.
Who will be responsible
Personal consequences have already been announced. The ministry will dismiss the head of the applications department and the project manager who led the project — formally they did not violate anything, but according to the minister, in such sensitive matters they should have checked the supplier’s statements more actively. The Slovak Metrology Institute, which issued the cameras’ certificate, was also criticized: Šutaj Eštok directly asks whether the state body was “misled or directly deceived.”
Why this concerns our readers: automatic radars mean concrete future fines that will be sent to the car owner’s address, including Ukrainians with dočasné útočisko (temporary shelter) whose cars are registered in Slovakia. The project will be delayed but not canceled. And when the system finally works at full capacity, speeding mistakes will become much more expensive. Follow the story’s development in our Slovakia news.
