Estonian PM says husband's companies not operating immorally

Kaja Kallas and Arvo Hallik. Photo: Taavi Sepp

According to Prime Minister Kaja Kallas, the company owned by her husband Arvo Hallik is not doing business with Russian clients, and she is convinced that the companies owned by her husband are not acting immorally.

«The company owned by my husband has no clients from the Russian Federation and is not organizing any transport in Russia. As soon as this war started, just like other entrepreneurs, they no longer have any dealings with Russian clients in Russia, these contracts have been terminated,» Kallas told.

She added that questions concerning her husband should be addressed to him, because the prime minister's work is quite busy, and according to Kallas, she cannot manage a company on the side.

«I am the prime minister, I have my own job,» Kallas said. «What I am absolutely certain about and convinced of is that the companies owned by my husband are not engaged in any immoral activity.»

The prime minister's husband owns altogether 24.8 percent of Stark Logistics. As emerged at the beginning of the summer, Kallas has given a loan of over 350,000 euros to Hallik's company Novaria Consult OU.

Stark Logistics claims that they have only one customer in the direction of Russia to whom they provide freight services. This customers is AS Metaprint, one of Europe's largest producers of steel aerosol packaging. Stark Logistics helps the company both to remove stock leftovers from Russian factories and to fulfill contracts that are still valid.

Stark Logistics and Metaprint are not only contractually but also organizationally related. The head of Metaprint, Martti Lemendik, is also the biggest beneficiary and head of the supervisory board of Stark Logistics.