Hostile special services' interest in Estonia growing - minister

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Membership of the European Union and NATO and geopolitical location are putting Estonia in a position where interest on the part of hostile special services toward the country is constant and ever growing, Interior Minister Ken-Marti Vaher said commenting on the detention of former security police staffer Vladimir Veitman as suspect in treason.

The minister recalled that the Estonian security police has caught four traitors in the past five years. «Catching a traitor is always a very complex thing for the country to do because we are speaking of professional activity that is carefully prepared and concealed. Catching a traitor is a victory for those who catch him and a heavy blow to the ones for whom the traitor worked,» Vaher said in remarks released through spokespeople in Friday.

Vaher said intelligence activity by the Russian Federation with regard to Estonia is constant and aggressive, since Estonia possesses valuable information that is of great interest for Russia. «Estonian security institutions are strong enough by now to combat eavesdropping, to expose these operations and bring traitors to responsibility. Not in vain has the security police been speaking for years about increasing intelligence activity by Russian special services and increasing frequency of their attempts to recruit Estonian citizens,» Vaher said.

Over the past years the Estonian state has boosted its ability to prevent intelligence activities by foreign countries, first of all in cooperation with international partners. Besides the Riigikogu in 2009 made punishments for offenses against the state tougher. «Because of that we are better able today to protect our national security, Estonia's independence and territorial integrity,» Vaher said.

The minister said Estonia will continue to expose such cases openly and in the Estonian way, by detaining traitors, making their names public, trying and punishing them. «Now it's time to let the prosecutor's office and other authorities responsible for criminal investigation to bring the investigation to a conclusion as soon as possible and to establish the scale of damage,» Vaher said.

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