Russian Federation Swaps Estonian Intelligence Officer for Ex-Security Official

Estonian security official Eston Kohver, who was convicted of espionage in Russia, has been exchanged for imprisoned Russian spy Aleksei Dressen.

Estonia’s Interior Ministry confirmed that Kohver is back on Estonian soil.

Russian Federation and Estonia exchanged two men accused of espionage at a remote border post on Saturday in an episode reminiscent of a Cold War spy thriller that follows heightened tensions between the neighbours.

The exchange came after “long-term negotiations”, the head of Estonia’s Internal Security Service, Arnold Sinisalu said at a televised news conference, sitting alongside Kohver.

“We are first giving Eston the opportunity to reunite with his family, we will provide more detailed information this afternoon”, the minister said.

On 19 August, 2015 he was found guilty and sentenced to 15 years in prison, in a decision that drew widespread worldwide condemnation.

The scandal was the latest in a series of spy cases involving Russian Federation and the Baltic states, former Soviet republics turned North Atlantic Treaty Organisation and European Union members increasingly wary of Russia’s intentions following the annexation of Crimea from Ukraine in 2014.

“During 20 years of work in the Estonian security police service, Dressen obtained and delivered to Moscow a colossal amount of valuable documents regarding secret operations of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency and the British MI6 against Russian Federation from the position of the Baltic countries”, he said.

A former departmental director of the Estonian Security Service, he was arrested in 2012 at Tallin airport while seeing his wife off to Moscow. He was sentenced to 16 years for treason.

The swap took place on a bridge over the Piusa River that separates Russia’s western Pskov region and Estonia’s Polva county.