'Anti-Estonian association': Estonia arrests politician for travelling to Russia

New Delhi: Estonian authorities on Friday said that they have arrested a politician on suspicion of activities against the state, along with two other individuals whose names were not released.

The Baltic country’s security service arrested Aivo Peterson in the town of Narva-Joesuu, on the border with Russia, for “anti-Estonian association”

Two Estonian citizens and one Russian national with permanent residence were detained, Russia Today quoted Security Police spokesperson Harrys Puusepp as saying to local media.

Puusepp said the state prosecutors were looking into them for “forming associations against the Estonian Republic,” without going into further detail about the accusations made against them.

Peterson is a notable supporter of Together (known in Estonian as Koos, and in Russian as Vmeste), a socialist political movement that promotes the peaceful coexistence of Russians and Estonians.

At the election last week, he ran for parliament as a member of the Estonian United Left. Together activist Andrei Pozdnyakov said that his detention amounted to government repression in a statement to Postimees.

According to Estonian outlets, such as Postimees and the state broadcaster ERR, Peterson is a “pro-Kremlin activist” and accused him of making “pro-Russian statements.”

According to Russia Today, Peterson visited Moscow towards the end of February, and a picture of him in Donetsk circulated on social media. Interior Minister Lauri Laanemets said that the politician must have collaborated with Russian intelligence in order to get so close to the battlefield, and declared him a security threat to Estonia.

On 6 March, when Peterson returned from Russia, border security reportedly detained him for a number of hours before releasing him.

The EU and NATO member country of the Baltics has taken a tough stance towards Russia over the turmoil in Ukraine. Tallinn has recently promoted the idea of restricting the teaching of Russian, and stated that even the Ukrainian migrants would need to learn Estonian if they wanted to stay.

With inputs from agencies

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