cross-posted from: https://mander.xyz/post/43814573
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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Because they’ve never went out and said Estonia shouldn’t be an independent nation, nor is there proof of their connection to foreign interests.
You’re allowed to hold any opinion in Estonia. As long as laws aren’t being broken, you ain’t going to jail. Their opinions are vile and hateful, but they have not directly, provably harmed anyone, and any conspiracies of theirs seem to still be secret enough that they’ve not been prosecuted yet.
Being a nazi becomes illegal when they start calling for harm of other people. But their platform is one of “change the immigration laws” and “change the family law”, not “kill the immigrants” and “kill the gays”. At least publicly they haven’t gone out to say any of that. And in Estonia, a person is innocent until proven guilty. Why do you think it took so long to prosecute the head of the Pro-Russian party if it was known long ago what a fuckface he was? The Helme family unfortunately aren’t as stupid as him. They’re every bit as evil, they play stupid a LOT, but they don’t break laws, at least not provably.
Fair point, but they often do talk about not liking gays and not liking LGBTQ+ people overall. Most are to my knowledge racist aswell considering they very much hate people of color. I feel like EKRE is one of the most hateful parties we have here.
I speak as an estonian.
Oh I fully agree that they’re hateful pieces of shit.
They just don’t usually break any laws, or when they do, they’re good at covering their tracks. Same as most political parties, really. I’m surprised we’ve even had any of the instances of campaign finance fraud come out.
Also Estonian btw. I’ve literally been coaxed into drinking with Ruuben Kaalep, I know how hateful they can be, particularly when they think people agree with them. Herr Kaalep literally told me that Hitler had the right idea, but didn’t get far enough…
What in the fuck.
I assume that was meant at the Kaalep part. Yes, he’s a known piece of shit around people in Tartu who frequented bars and such around 10 years ago. I’ve told this story without mentioning the name first and a coworker went “oh, was it Kaalep?” Like I said, the real issue is the lack of solid evidence. Can’t prosecute someone without that. What he said that time was bad enough that it could likely have been prosecuted as hate speech, BUT he was drunk on Rüütli street and not being recorded. If he’d said it as a public statement on Twitter or something, I reckon at least something would’ve been done.