RT reporter – enemy of the state in Estonia?!
Estonia’s intelligence has been laboring hard all year long; now a sizable part of its annual report features “the Russian threat.” The threat is varied and cunning, and one of its many faces is RT – and its correspondent Aleksey Yaroshevsky. Scared?
“Yo I’m famous!” Yaroshevsky tweeted upon hearing the news.A report filed by Estonia’s security police (KAPO) on Thursday gives a whole list of people, companies and nations which are considered to pose a threat to the Baltic country, both real and potential. RT and Aleksey Yaroshevsky, the chief reporter for RT’s bureau in Ukraine and Eastern Europe, line up with:- the Russian Foreign Ministry and personally FM Sergey Lavrov- major Russian broadcasters including Channel One and NTV- Tallinn Vice Mayor Mikhail Kylvart - Russian GONGOs- the NGO “World without Nazism” and its head, Boris Spiegel- the Kremlin- the USSR- WWII - the relocation of the Soviet soldier monument in Tallinn in 2007 (a move totally sponsored by Tallinn authorities themselves)The list has been published on the Delfi news website and goes on and on.Though Tallinn is known for banning journalists attempting to cover Nazi and anti-Nazi events, this is the first time the police got so personal, says Yaroshevsky. RT’s correspondent has been covering various stories ranging from the woes of the Russian minority in the Baltic country to the glorification of Nazi collaborators.Aleksey now wonders whether his angry Twitter message regarding an interview with Jürgen Ligi, the country’s finance minister, has landed him on the blacklist – in Lavrov’s company. In November, Yaroshevsky and his crew were to find out whether Estonians wished to the European Union, as some were speaking against the single currency. The country’s finance minister agreed to comment. “We came to his office,” recalls Yaroshevsky. “We waited for an hour there. Suddenly, his secretary said he did now want to give an interview. I was so much insulted by that unprofessional approach. I posted a furious tweet about it, saying this is not how it should work – being denied the interview straight up in a minister’s office. Maybe this was the reason for the Estonian authorities to blacklist me and the station.”“I am not going to say anything against Estonians – they are good people, their country’s beautiful, their food’s delicious. They are just unlucky with those on the top,” he tweets later. Russian media are out of KAPO's mercy. They unleash radical moods in Estonia, sowing discord and discontent among its nationals, the security police say quoting a shooting incident at the country’s Defense Ministry. In August 2011, an assailant, armed to the teeth, broke into the ministry to be eventually shot down by police. The only death in the incident was brought on by an officer’s bullet. According to Estonian Defense Minister Mart Laar, who spoke out shortly after the assault, the man had been influenced by “Russian propaganda.”“Considering how the controlled Russia media stigmatize Estonia as years pass… you can see what manipulation can do to people, especially when they are nonplussed and in an appropriate state,” says the KAPO report as quoted by Interfax.Overall, Estonia’s KAPO says the prospect is not good, as Russia is expected to continue scaling up intelligence and propaganda activities in the country. Still, Moscow’s actual target appears to be NATO and its allies, their “defense capabilities and development plans,” states the report.
