Kohver was conducting an investigation into cross-border smuggling when he was kidnapped and taken to Russia on September 5, just a few days after US President Barack Obama's visit to Estonia.;xNLx;;xNLx;Russian prosecution has charged him with a number of crimes, such as carrying an illegal firearm and 5,000 euros in cash, illegally crossing the border and espionage.
According to the Internal Security Service (ISS), Estonia's national agency for counterintelligence and high-profile corruption investigations, one of their officials was abducted at gunpoint on Friday morning at Luhamaa border checkpoint, where he was discharging service duties, and taken to Russia.
Russian media have reported that a Moscow court has remanded to custody the Estonian security police official who was reportedly kidnapped by FSB, the Russian federal security agency, from the Estonian side of the border on Friday morning.
The Estonian consul in Moscow has not been allowed to meet the Estonian Internal Security (ISS) official who was reportedly kidnapped by the FSB, the Russian federal security agency, from Estonia early on Friday.
The head of the Estonian Internal Security Service, Arnold Sinisalu, said the operation in which apprehended Estonian secret service official Eston Kohver took part in in southern Estonia on Friday, September 5, had backup, but that it did not react quickly enough.
A four-hour meeting of Estonian and Russian border guards on Monday ended without an agreement in the case of the abducted Estonian secret service official, despite an initial agreement on the day of the incident by Russian border authorities that the abduction did take place on Estonian territory.
Russia could turn the court hearings of Estonian security service official Eston Kohver into a propaganda show, said Andrei Soldatov, a Russian intelligence service expert and editor with agentura.ru.
United States State Department deputy spokesperson Marie Harf said Tuesday that the US is calling on Russia to arrange for the safe and immediate return of Estonian counterintelligence agent Eston Kohver.
The Economist senior editor Edward Lucas told ETV the move to apprehend Estonian secret service official Eston Kohver may backfire in the long run, as Russia could have a famous political prisoner on its hands for the next 20 years, which will become an irritant.
The Estonian Police and Border Guard have released video showing a group of Estonian and Russian border guards doing a walkthrough shortly after the September 5 incident in which Estonian security police office Eston Kohver was abducted.
The European Union's foreign relations representatives, as well as the president of the EU parliament, have called on Russia to release Estonian counterintelligence official Eston Kohver, who is accused of espionage in Russia although he is believed to have been kidnapped from Estonian soil.
The Estonian counterintelligence official Eston Kohver, who is being held in the Lefortovo prison in Moscow, said he does not want two high-profile lawyers hired by the Estonian state to help him battle espionage charges, according to media reports.
The FSB, the Russian security service, said captured Estonian security official Eston Kohver met a FSB worker a number of times and recruited him before being captured on September 5.
The state-appointed lawyer of the captured Estonian Internal Security Service (ISS) official Eston Kohver, Yevgeni Aksyonov, said he received new evidence from the Estonian counterintelligence authority to present to Russian authorities.
According to ERR correspondent in Moscow, Neeme Raud, captured Estonian secret service official Eston Kohver will remain under arrest until at least January 5.
Urmas Paet, a new Estonian representative to the European Parliament, has submitted a request to the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Federica Mogherini, in relation to abducted Estonian internal security service agent Eston Kohver.
Russian authorities today finally granted an Estonian doctor permission to check on the abducted internal security service agent Eston Kohver.
Today is the six-month anniversary of the abduction of an Estonian counterintelligence officer by Russia from Estonian soil, and Eston Kohver has received political support from a high level as the EU issued a statement calling for his immediate release.
Russian Federation investigators will interrogate the abducted Estonian internal secret service agent Eston Kohver at Moscow's Lefortovo prison today.
The Lefortovo Court in Moscow has extended Estonian Internal Security Service official Eston Kohver's arrest for another two months, until June 5.
Former Estonian foreign minister and current MEP Urmas Paet said that anything brought up against captured Estonian official Eston Kohver in court in Russia will be fabricated and has no real substance.
As a best-case scenario, the Estonian security service official Eston Kohver's court process in the Russian border town Pskov will start in June at the earliest.
The European Union's foreign affairs chief, Federica Mogherini, completely shares the concerns regarding the abduction of Eston Kohver, she said in response to Estonian MEP Urmas Paet and Guy Verhofstadt, the leader of Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Group (ALDE) in the European Parliament.
The Estonian security official Eston Kohver will face a secret trial slated to start on June 2 in Pskov, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has confirmed.
Estonian consul in Moscow will not be allowed to attend the court proceedings over Eston Kohver in Pskov because Russian judge ruled that the trial is closed.
In a statement issued by the US Ambassador Daniel Brooks Baer to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), the United States clearly asks Russia to free the abducted Estonian internal security service agent Eston Kohver.
The closed court hearing over Estonian security official Eston Kohver, held at a prison in Moscow since September 2014, started today at the Pskov regional court.
President Toomas Hendrik Ilves, Prime Minister Taavi Rõivas and a number of other top level Estonian politicians and officials wore a yellow ribbon on Tuesday's Victory Day events in Kärdla in support of abducted security official Eston Kohver.
The case around the kidnapped Estonian security official Eston Kohver has been moved back from Moscow to Pskov, near the Estonian border, after a reverse move at the beginning of June.
The Pskov court has extended the detention of abducted Estonian security agent Eston Kohver until September 7. The closed court hearing will start on July 27.
In an interview with Eesti Päevaleht, Foreign Minister Marina Kaljurand said that no one is under the illusion that kidnapped Estonian security official Eston Kohver will be cleared by Russian authorities.
Eston Kohver, the kidnapped Estonian security service operative, was warned that his activity in fighting smugglers on the Estonian-Russian border has irritated local powers, Andrey Kuzhkin, a former administrative head of Tomsk Oblast in Russia, said, adding that politicians are deeply involved in crime in the Pskov Oblast.
According to reports in the Russian media, the Pskov court will publish its ruling, concerning kidnapped Estonian official Eston Kohver, on August 19, one day before Estonia celebrates 24 years since regaining independence from the Soviet Union.
Former Estonian ambassador to Moscow, Jüri Luik, said the trial of kidnapped Estonian security official Eston Kohver is just for show and he is likely to receive a long sentence. The Pskov court is expected to make a ruling on August 19.
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