The Tallin Circuit Court has denied an appeal from Svetlana Burtseva against a conviction for sanctions and treason offences.
As per our earlier post, Burtseva has been sentenced to 6 years in jail, of which 2 years were for the sanctions offence.
The sanctions offence was the making of economic resources available to a sanctioned person. Ms Burceva worked for Russian state media outlet RIA Rossiya Segodnya, the head of which is Dmitry Kiselyov who is sanctioned by the EU.
It has been reported (and here) that Ivan Dmitriev, an Estonian national has been convicted of a range of offences including breaches of sanctions and espionage on behalf of Russia’s FSB.
He was sentenced to four years and 11 months in jail.
The reports do not provide detail on the conduct constituting breaches of the EU’s Russian sanctions.
The US Department of Justice has issued a press release confirming that the Estonian authorities have transferred Estonian national Andrey Shevlyakov to US custody for extradition to the US to face 18 counts of supplying US goods and technology to Russia in breach of US sanctions.
It is being reported that Mr Shevlyakov was first detained in March 2023 as part of a joint investigation between US and Estonian authorities.
It is being reported that the Tartu Country Court yesterday convicted Erna Moisejeva of a range of offences including the multiple attempted exports of luxury goods to Russia n breach of the EU’s sanctions.
She was also convicted of espionage and supplying information to the FSB.
Moisejeva was sentenced to 3 years’ jail and ordered to pay court costs of €3140.
The judgment remains subject to appeal.
Further to our earlier post, the Estonian authorities have decided to prosecute an Estonian lawyer for alleged breaches of sanctions. The Prosecutor’s Press Release states that attorney Urmas Simon has been charged with making an economic resource available to the designated person Pravfond, in the form of legal services to a third party paid for by Pravfond. Mr Simon is also charged in relation to taking payment from the sanctioned entity.
The Foreign Ministry of Estonia has issued a press release stating that it has declared a Russian diplomat persona non grata requiring the diplomat to leave Estonia.
The press release stated, in part:
“The diplomat in question has been directly and actively involved in undermining the constitutional order and legal system of Estonia, as well as in dividing Estonian society, contributing to the crimes against the state, including several offences related to sanctions violations. At present, one citizen of the Republic of Estonia has been convicted for carrying out these crimes.”
No further information is yet available on the specifics of the alleged violations, or of the conviction of the Estonian national.
Estonia’s Customs has issued information on its current enforcement activity in relation to sanctioned Russian timber.
While noting the use of Kazakhstan, China and Georgia as prominent third countries used for attempts to import Russian timber, Estonian Customs notes:
The release does not identify the outcomes of the 23 identified violations.
Estonia’s Office of the Prosecutor has issued a press release regarding an agreed settlement with Pavel Kapustin convicting him of sanctions offences as well as espionage and supplying false information.
The man was sentenced to 6.5 years’ jail and assets valued at €90,000 were confiscated. The press release does not break down the sentence by offence.
The man took orders for luxury goods from Russian customers and arranged for their transport to Russia in breach of the EU’s sanctions.
This is the sixth custodial sentence handed down in Estonia for sanctions offences so far this year.
Further to our earlier post regarding an investigation in Latvia into the activities of the designated Russian state entity “Pravfond”, it has now been reported that a number of other investigations are ongoing in relation to this entity’s activities:
1) An investigation has been commenced in Sweden in relation to a school that had associations with Pravfond;
2) In Estonia a multiple investigations (by the criminal authorities and the bar association) have been opened in relation to lawyers who accepted funds from Pravfond; and
3) In Lithuania a criminal investigation has been opened (as well as one by the bar association) into lawyers who took funds from Pravfond.
Further to our earlier post, it has been reported that journalist Svetlana Burtseva has been convicted of breaches of the EU’s sanctions.
The offence was committed by making “economic resources” available to a designated person. The designated person was the sanctioned media outlet Rossiya Segodnya.
The “economic resources” were articles and photos written and taken by the journalist.
Ms Burtseva was sentenced to 2 years in jail for this offence.
Separately the same journalist was also convicted of treason and given a 4-year sentence for the treason offence.
