It’s not only lawyers who will sway the Estonian security officer Eston Kohver court case in Moscow; rather, it’s up to when and how much Estonian authorities finally speak up, Andrei Soldatov, a Russian investigative journalist and security service expert says.
As announced yesterday, Mr Kohver, allegedly accused in espionage, will be defended in court by Mark Feigin and Nikolai Polozov – two superstars of the trade.
Both were representing members of the Pussy Riot punk band.
You’ve said that Russian media is not really covering Estonian agent Kohver’s case. Will the fact that he has very high-profile lawyers now make any difference?
In this case, I don’t think the choice of the lawyers means anything. We’ve got plenty of examples when people, who are accused of espionage, even foreigners, hire high-profile lawyers. For example Americans hired a very well-known lawyer Pavel Astakhov. He was representing Edmond Pope, who was then accused of espionage [Pope was sentenced to 20 years in prison, but Russian President Vladimir Putin pardoned him soon]. He even recited a poem at the court, to attract the media, but it didn’t help. Therefore, unfortunately it’s not very important, which lawyer you have if the cases are directed from the higher level of authority. In this case, the whole thing is sanctioned by Kremlin. The fact that he is kept in Lefortovo is a very ominous sign.
So the lawyers don’t make any difference. What does then?
We know very little about [Eston Kohver] now. It’s a wrong strategy. The best thing Estonians can do now is to present us as much details as possible about this guy.
To talk about him, to introduce him to the world?
Yes, even his name seems a bit suspicious. The best idea is to press on Estonian authority to try and give as much details as possible.
What he was doing on the border, who is he and so on?
What kind of relations, training he had – to show that he didn’t belong to intelligence service, but he was from the law enforcement. All of us need to pressure Estonians to give more information. That might make some difference. As I understood it was a joint operation [between Russia and Estonia]. The best thing to do is to try to give all evidence to prove it was a joint operation.
Even if we would speak more about him, would Russian media cover it?
New media would be keen to cover this scandal if there were more details. We still have some independent new media, online media, some broadcasting companies. But it wouldn’t make any difference with the TV as it is under full control of the government.
Mark Galeotti, an expert from New York university, said that Kohver will probably be released soon (http://news.postimees.ee/2914309/security-expert-freedom-for-kohver-likely-problem-to-persist), because Russia is using him as a test to show the allies that they are not as united as they think they are. Kohver was just used to make this point and they might just swap him for another intelligence agent imprisoned in Estonia. What do you think about this theory?
First of all, Russians have become very unwilling to swapping agents.
Why?
Nobody has any answers to that. Two guys [Russian spies Andreas and Heidrun Anschlag] were caught in Germany some years ago. They were never exchanged and they are still in Germany. But Mark may be right, maybe he was caught to make a point. But the problem is that he won’t be swapped.
Yes, so how else will he be released now?
Yes, that’s the big question. Nobody knows. Do you remember the case of the Ukrainian Nadezhda Savchenko [a Ukrainian pilot seized by pro-Russian rebels in June]? I’m afraid the Estonian guy might share the same fate. She is in the same prison.