The Russian Embassy in Estonia is seeking additional information from authorities in Tallinn after learning on September 11 that a Russian national was recently sentenced to five years in prison for espionage.
“After the Estonian media released reports…that an unnamed citizen of the Russian Federation had been arrested in May and then sentenced…in August…the embassy promptly requested additional information,” the embassy wrote on Facebook.
The news of the spy was first reported by Estonian newspaper Postimees.
The convicted Russian was only identified as A.A. with a secondary education, according to a document from the Tallinn-based Harju County Court that AFP obtained.
He was found guilty on August 29 and fined $1,430.
Estonia’ Internal Security Service declined to provide additional information on the specific charges the Russian faced because it was still pursuing related leads.
At least 15 people recruited by Russian GRU military intelligence and the Federal Security Service (FSB) to operate in Estonia have been caught in recent years, EER news agency reported.
Moscow and Tallinn have exchanged several convicted spies in recent years.
Tensions between Russia and the Baltic states have risen since Russian troops seized Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula in 2014 and Moscow illegally annexed the territory.
