The Russian Embassy in Tallinn sent a note of protest to the Estonian Foreign Ministry on Friday, Apr. 13, against "the Estonian Security Police's (KaPo) unwarranted accusations of Russian diplomat Yury Tsvetkov."
The Russian diplomat "is baselessly mentioned in this organization’s annual report in connection with some possible ‘influence and control’ that our diplomat could wield in relation to Tallinn Deputy Mayor Mihhail Kolvart," the embassy said in a statement posted on its website.
The embassy said it considered "unacceptable and intolerable" KaPo’s attempts to decide on appropriateness of usual diplomatic practice of contacts between employees of a foreign mission and members of an opposition parliamentary party.
"Not a single democratic country considers such contacts a ‘hostile’ activity incompatible with diplomatic status," the embassy said.
"Embassy Attache Tsvetkov’s work in Estonia fully complies with the relevant provisions of the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations," the embassy said. It said it views "this provocation on KaPo’s part in relation to Tsvetkov as an awkward attempt to take revenge" on Russia for the disclosure of an unsanctioned February trip of a group of Estonian diplomats led by Ambassador Simmu Tiik to Severodvinsk, a territory restricted for foreign citizens’ visits, it said.
"KaPo’s action in relation to the Russian diplomat will not be left without consequences and will certainly have a negative effect on Russian-Estonian relations," it said.
KaPo published a report on its work in 2011 on Friday, which says, in particular, that Tallinn Deputy Mayor Kolvart, a member of the major opposition Center Party, met with Tsvetkov and handed school history textbooks to him. KaPo admitted that this did not violate Estonian law, but said "Kolvart’s activities cause questions."
