Estonia arrests former KGB officers
Incident follows Russian kidnapping of Estonian agent, pointing to heightened tensions between Moscow and Tallinn
Two former Soviet security officials have been arrested crossing into Estonia, the second major incident between Russia and its Baltic neighbour in the past weeks.
In early September an Estonian security agent was abducted at gunpoint and taken to Russia, where he is awaiting trial after being accused of spying.
Last Sunday two Russians, reportedly identified as former KGB officers, were held by Estonian border guards when their boat allegedly crossed the border on the Narva River near Lake Peipsi.
The men, Mihhail Suhoshin, 64, and Alexander Ladur, 54, are being held on charges of resisting arrest and illegally entering Estonia.
The incidents point to heightened tensions between the two countries.
“The ex-KGB guys caught on the Narva River are ‘ex’ and may have been merely fishing,” said Kalev Stoicescu, a research fellow and Russia expert at the Tallinn based International Centre for Defence Studies. “But the Russians are testing all types of borders, on land, at sea and in the air space of many Nato and EU countries including Estonia. They do this to provoke, but also to test reactions both technically and politically.”
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/oct/03/estonia-kgb-officers-arrest?CMP=twt_gu
