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DEVELOPING: Estonian Counterintelligence Officer Abducted to Russia at Gunpoint
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 at Luhamaa border checkpoint this morning where he was discharging service duties, and taken to Russia.Initially there was little indication it was necessarily more than an isolated criminal incident, but within several hours it had developed into a diplomatic row, with the Estonian and Russian intelligence agencies advancing cardinally opposite versions of the events. The report of the abduction broke around 16:00, seven hours after it happened. At about 19:00, the FSB, the Russian security agency, was first to mention the name of the agent, Eston Kohver, which was later confirmed by the ISS. That was the only detail consistent in the versions, with the Russians putting forward a claim that Kohver was captured on the Russian side. However, Russian border guards said earlier in the day they had no knowledge of the incident. The incident occurred at about 9:00 on the Estonian side of the border and was preceded by jamming of communications and use of a smoke grenade, the ISS said; the interference was said to originate from the Russia side. The ISS said the official was in the process of interdiction of a cross-border crime. The area is in Vőru County, by Russian border post #121. The border lacks major fortifications; the area is thinly populated. The whereabouts of the official were not known at first. Martin Arpo, deputy director of the ISS, told Delfi later in the evening that the official was alive and well and in the hands of the FSB. There was no immediate explanation on the late disclosure of the incident - more than six hours after it occurred - which comes during a period of more tense relations with Russia. Posted by: Beavis 2014-09-05 |
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