Russia's Pskov Regional Court on Aug. 19 convicted Estonian security service officer Eston Kohver of spying and sentenced him to 15 years in prison.
The harsh sentence is a bad sign for several Ukrainians jailed and awaiting trial in Russia, including filmmaker Oleh Sentsov, accused of terrorism, and former Ukrainian pilot Nadiya Savchenko, accused of being involved in the murder of two journalists.
Both Sentsov and Savchenko are considered in the West and by Ukraine to be political prisoners held on trumped-up charges, illegally taken from their nation by Russian forces.
Sentsov opposed Russia’s forced annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula and Savchenko defended Ukraine against Russia’s war.
Kohver was also kidnapped by Russians inside Estonia.
An official report on the Russian court ruling reads that the Estonian officer is to serve his sentence at a high-security penitentiary in Russia. Estonia has rejected the charges, and said Kohver was abducted from Estonian territory by Russian security agents.
“The abduction of Kohver from the territory of the Republic of Estonia by the FSB (Federal Security Service) on Sept. 5 and his unlawful detainment in Russia thereafter constitute a blatant breach of international law,” Estonian Foreign Minister Marina Kaljurand said in a posting on her ministry’s official website on Aug. 19. “We condemn today’s judgment and demand Kohver’s immediate release.”
Head of Estonian Parliament Defense Commission Marko Mikhkelson demaned Kohver’s release. “The kidnapping of one of our citizens is an abuse of international human rights,” Mikhkelson told the BBC on Aug. 19.
The Ukrainian government is obviously concerned that Kohver’s fate foreshadows harsh prison sentences for Savchenko, Sentsov and other nine Ukrainian political prisoners arrested and taken to Russia.
All of them, like Kohver, have been in Russian pre-trial detention cells for months, awaiting trial and denied consular help.
“Estonian citizen Eston Kohver as well as Ukrainians Nadia Savchenko, Oleh Sentsov, Oleksander Kolchenko and other foreigners illegally detained in Russia, are hostages of Russian aggressive policy,” said in the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ statement on Aug. 19.
The editorial staff of Ukrainian news channel Espresso.tv criticized the case, saying that the verdict handed down against Kohver is a triumph of evil.
“People are kidnapped from their own countries and charged with grave crimes. This idiotic idea could not even have come from the mind of (Soviet dictator Josef) Stalin.”
However, Russia’s FSB claims when Kohver was detained near the Russian-Estonian border in Russia’s Pskov Oblast, he was on “an undercover operation by the Estonian Security Service.”
The Russian authorities claim Kohver illegally crossed the border while in possession on contraband, espionage equipment, a Taurus pistol with bullets, and 5,000 euros in cash.
Estonia said its officer was arrested on the Estonian side of the border and then taken into Russia by force. “Unidentified persons from Russia captured an Estonian Security Service officer on the territory of Estonia, near the Luhamaa border crossing point. The officer was taken to Russia using physical force and at gunpoint,” the Estonian State Prosecutor’s Office said in a statement issued on Sept. 5 last year.
Officials in Tallinn said Kohver was at the border to meet an informant as part of an investigation into a smuggling operation carried out by an organized criminal group.
Earlier, the European Union asked Russia to release the Estonian citizen, and it even raised the issue at the 29th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council on June 24 this year, during which serious human rights violations were discussed.
“The abduction of Kohver from the territory of the Republic of Estonia by the FSB and his illegal detention in Russia is a blatant violation of international law, which has lasted for more than nine months now,” former Estonian Foreign Minister Pentus-Rosimannus said during the meeting.
“We are grateful to all our allies and partners, who are raising this issue with Russia bilaterally and are helping to keep up international pressure for the abducted Estonian citizen to be allowed to return home to his family,” the former minister said.
Kyiv Post staff writer Denis Krasnikov can be reached at [email protected].
