One of the leaders of the pro-Russian Koos party and Estonian citizen Aivo Peterson was sentenced to 14 years in prison for treason by Harju District Court on Thursday.
The trial, which began in November 2023, dealt with allegations of treason against Estonian citizens Peterson and Dmitri Rootsi, as well as claims that Peterson and Russian citizen Andrei Andronov acted to undermine Estonia’s independence.
The charges were connected to meetings with Russian politicians, aligning policy positions, the organization of an independent civil defense organization, and a Russian-funded press trip to occupied Ukraine.
According to the indictment, Peterson and Rootsi, based on instructions received from Russia, knowingly and in an organized manner assisted Russia and people acting on behalf of Russian authorities in non-violent activities directed against the independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Republic of Estonia from October 2022 to March 10, 2023.
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Germany should take notes.
Indeed, those AfD fucks need prison sentences, especially that loser Moosdorf.
We did, the last time we locked up leaders of an opposition party. The information about his crimes is too thin to make me feel comfortable.
If you want to use history to argue, you should know it: The last opposition party that was banned in (west) germany was the communist party KPD in 1956. Which was a antidemocratic party controlled by Moscow and East Berlin. Which is kind of what we are talking about here. Before that the “Sozialistische Reichspartei” SRP was banned in 1952, which branded itself as a sucessor to the NSDAP.
we locked up leaders
opposition party that was banned
I “cheated”.
There is https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horst_Mahler but he has explicitly broken the law in a clear way.
Which is kind of what we are talking about here.
No. The Estonian was about to create an organisation, but then he was locked up and no organisation was forbidden. It’s not the same.
This should happen to every Russian agent in the EU.
Edit:
Judging from the comments, I’m probably going to get hated for saying this, but …I don’t like this. This is antidemocratic and dangerous.
Here is my frame of reference: Balkan nationalist paranoia.
The allegations against this guy remind me too much of the allegations raised by Greek nationalists against Macedonian-speakers in Greece during the times before the Prespa Agreement. They were trying to create a political party to promote language rights, at a time when Greece was being paranoid about North Macedonia claiming Greek Macedonia. The nationalists saw Kosovo taken from Serbia and decided they would never let this happen to Greece. People literally believed the Americans were out to redraw maps on the Balkans and were going to use minorities to break up greece. So, make a slavophone party? Traitor. Works for “FYROM”. Threatens Greek sovereignty.
Very similar dynamics are still going on with any kind of Muslim political movement calling itself Turkish. Immediately the Greek nationalists will label them Erdogan agents. Traitors who threaten Greek sovereignty.
Thankfully, the Greek state is actually not as paranoid for the most part. But if the ultranationalists got their way, this is exactly the kind of treatment they would like to inflict on any kind of minority political organizing.
Ultimately, this is a political persecution. We see these kinds of persecutions in Turkey, against the Kurds for example. Or in Albania against the Greek minority in past decades.
The guy’s crimes are all in the political sphere. Non violent. Subject to the democratic process. This smells very bad and will very likely backfire politically. The guy is now going to be treated as a politician prisoner by the Russian propaganda machine. Used as proof that European democracy is not all that it claims to be. This is bad. I hope he appeals to the European Court of Justice, gets released and then fades to the obscurity he deserves.
What is wrong about putting someone in prison for plotting to overthrow the government or to aid in the cessation of national sovereignty?
If we’re talking about an actual plot, an actionable conspiracy, a plan that says this guy, that guy and that guy, on that day, with those guns, etc, then there is nothing wrong with it. If we’re talking in other words about a conspiracy for a coup d’état, then nothing wrong with foiling and punishing. But between that and forming a political party that advocates for this and that policy, and then puts it to the electorate through a democratic process, there is a LOT of space. Lumping all of that space in a single pot of traitors is extremely dangerous for democracy. That’s how you get McCarthyism, that’s frankly exactly how you get Putinism. Reading the descriptions of this case, this looks more like some shade of light grey.
And when it comes to “cessession of national sovereignty”, that’s even more vague. In Quebec, there is an active independence movement. That would be an infringement in Canadian national sovereignty. In Alberta there are idiots who argue for the 51st state bullshit. In Catalonia they talk about ending Spanish sovereignty. In Corsica, in Basque, in Scotland, I could go on. A democracy has ways of handling these that are not “call them traitors and put them in jail”. For the far right, participation in international organisations like the EU or in the United States even participation in the UN is often brought up as cessation of national sovereignty.
Basically, what I’m saying is the question that you’re asking sounds simple but it is nowhere near simple.
Learn the difference between cessation and cessession
I brought up cessessionist movements as examples of cases where there is a legitimate case for protecting national sovereignty against a minority that doesn’t see itself in the bigger national polity. For nationalists cessession is cessation.
But my argument is not limited to cessassionist movements. I also mention the 51st state idiots that are actually very close parallels to the Estonian case.
assisted Russia and people acting on behalf of Russian authorities in non-violent activities directed against the independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Republic of Estonia from October 2022 to March 10, 2023.
What did he do? Espionage or writing an article in support of Russia?
To answer my question, translated from wikipedia with deepL:
According to the indictment, the defendants participated in conscious influence activities aimed at creating a political association in Estonia that would support Russia’s foreign and security policy narratives and propaganda messages. According to the indictment, the aim of this association was to create an opportunity for Russia to threaten Estonia’s constitutional order, interfere in Estonia’s internal politics, and influence its foreign policy. [17] The civil defense unit to be created under the Koos movement, which was to be presented to the public as a charitable organization, was to fill the role of the army in a power vacuum.
