The Harju County Court in Estonia arrested the leader of the social movement Koos, Aivo Peterson, and, according to preliminary information, two of his associates, Dmitry Roots and Russian citizen Andrey Andronov, for two months. They are suspected of “establishing ties against the Republic of Estonia”, reports Postimees. According to the publication, we are talking about “establishing ties” with Russia.
The Estonian security police arrested three men on March 10, the newspaper reports. The court’s arrest order states that the detainees may try to escape punishment if they are at large, and there is also a risk that they will continue to commit crimes. The detainees are charged under Art. 235 of the Estonian Penal Code. They can face up to six years in prison.
Mr. Peterson ran for the elections to the Riigikogu (Parliament) from the Estonian United Left Party and won 3968 votes in Ida-Viru County. According to Postimees, before the elections, which took place on March 5, the politician visited Donetsk, after which he visited Moscow and spoke on the air of the channel “Soloviev Live”.
The fact that among those arrested there is a Russian citizen Andrei Aronov, said in his Telegram channel Alexei Stefanov, special correspondent for the Rossiya Segodnya media group. According to information Err.eeMr. Aronov is a former member of the Night Watch public association, created to protect the monument to those who died in World War II in the city of Tallinn.
Koos member Oleg Ivanov told Err.ee about the detention of Dmitry Roots. At the same time, the press service of the Estonian Prosecutor General’s Office did not name the three arrested men, and the security police reported only about the detention of Mr. Peterson.
On the website of the movement Together it says that its main goal is “to ensure peace in Estonia and harmony in relations between peoples.” In October, Koos activists made a petition to the government of the republic with a call for Estonia to withdraw from the sanctions against Russia.