Estonia: Russia Not Giving Consular Access to Captured Spy

Continues to Dispute Which Side of Border He Was Caught On

Estonian officials are complaining tonight that Russia has refused to grant their consular officials access to Eston Kohver, an Estonian spy who was arrested by the Russian FSB last week.

Kohver was arrested along the border with eavesdropping equipment, carrying a gun and 5,000 Euros in cash, according to Russian officials. Estonia claims he was on the Estonian side of the border, which isn’t actually marked in the area where he was caught.

Estonian officials insist that everyone knows the border is defined by a series of bushes in that area, and that Kohver knew it and couldn’t possibly have crossed the border by mistake. Russian officials don’t dispute that, but suspect he crossed intentionally.

Kohver works for the Estonia intelligence agency, but officials claim he was actually working on anti-corruption investigations at the time of his capture, which wouldn’t explain why he was milling about the Russian border.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.