Estonia charges pro-Moscow activists with plotting GRU-backed paramilitary bid to topple government

Estonian prosecutors say leaders of a pro-Kremlin minority party conspired with Russia’s military intelligence agency, the GRU, to build a covert paramilitary network capable of seizing power if a “vacuum” emerged in Tallinn.

Estonian military police.

Photo: WanderingTrad, CC BY-SA 4.0

State Prosecutor Triinu Olev-Aas told Harju County Court the scheme was led by Aivo Peterson, head of the Russian-minority Koos (Together) party, with associates Eduard Fedotov, Julia Smoli and Dmitri Rootsi.

Beginning in 2022, they allegedly organized a “civil-defense unit” mirroring Estonia’s army while presenting it publicly as a charitable group.

Peterson’s aim was “to create a network involving people from every village and apartment association […] to handle security, organize defense and fulfil the role of the army in case of a power vacuum,” Olev-Aas said, according to Postimees.

Peterson, Rootsi and a fourth defendant, Andrei Andronov, were arrested in 2023 by Estonia’s Internal Security Service on suspicion of treason. Prosecutors last week sought prison terms of 17 years for Peterson, 13 years for Rootsi and 11 years for Andronov.

(jh)

Source: TVP World, Kresy.pl