Russia Detains Estonian Diplomat Over Spy Charges
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Alaina
- . July 7, 2021
- . Update: July 7, 2021 4:15 pm
Estonia’s consul has been caught receiving classified documents, the Russian Federal Security Service has confirmed. Consul Mart Latte said that “such activities are incompatible with the status of a diplomatic worker and are openly hostile to Russia.”
Russia is known to have expelled Estonian diplomats two times this year already. This was done as a retaliation for Estonia’s expulsion of Russian diplomats. In response to the Russian action, Estonian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Aari Lemmik commented that the detention is actually ‘a provocation and damaging to European Union member states and the EU as a whole.’
Estonia has said that the incident really looks like a setup by Russia, and will lead to confrontative reactions with EU. Apparently, Mr. Latte had been caught red handed receiving documents from a Russian citizen. Estonia is not the only country that has seen troubled diplomatic relations over Russian diplomatic ties with Kremlin. In fact, Italy, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic and Romania are among the other EU countries that have complained of similar incidents. Russia has responded back with them with exchanged tit-for-tat expulsions.
In Match, Italy caught two Russians on charges of spying and arrested a Navy captain over his ‘clandestine meeting’ with a Russian military officer. Such incidents were rare but left Italy cautious of Kremlin’s intentions. The navy officer named as Walter Biot, said that he worked in the military policy unit within the office of the Chief of the Defense Staff.
Similar instances of such nature have been seen in other countries to which Russia has been rubbed the wrong way and has been trying to get back on others. Russia has been known to run spy networks and relies heavily on intelligence gathering through its cyber-netware as well.
