Estonia says officer abducted on border; Russia says it detained spy

Estonia said one of its security officers had been abducted on the border and taken into Russia on Friday as he tried to stop illegal activity on the border, but Russia said he had been detained on its territory as a suspected spy. Estonian Foreign Minister Urmas Paet said Tallinn had contacted Moscow about the incident, on a border that in recent years has seen a number of incidents involving the smuggling of goods, weapons and migrants. Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB), successor to the Soviet KGB, said an Estonian officer, identified as Eston Kohver, had been detained on Russian territory and was being investigated.The Estonian security service confirmed to local media that the abducted man was Kohver. The incident comes two days after U.S. President Barack Obama visited Estonia to reassure the Baltic nation that its status as a NATO member would assure its border security.

He was captured by force, at gunpoint. He was fulfilling his duties preventing cross-border criminal activity. … A Taurus handgun with ammunition, 5,000 euros in cash, special equipment for concealed audio recording and documents that bear evidence of an intelligence mission were seized from the intruder.

Statement from Russia’s Federal Security Service

The statement said the unidentified abductors had jammed radio communication at the Luhamaa checkpoint and used a smoke grenade as they seized him. Relations between Russia and Estonia, an ex-Soviet state and member of the EU and NATO, have deteriorated in recent months because of Russia’s annexation of Crimea and a pro-Russian separatist rebellion in eastern Ukraine. About a quarter of Estonia’s population are ethnic Russians. On Wednesday, U.S. President Barack Obama visited Estonia on his way to a NATO summit to assure it and the other two Baltic states, Lithuania and Latvia, of NATO’s support.

Europe Estonia Russia