Estonian border guards have arrested two Russian fishermen for crossing the border. The two men, Russian news agency 47news.ru claims, are former KGB agents.
The news agency claims Mihhail Suhoshin, 64, and Alexander Ladur, 54, held major ranks within the KGB and the Federal Protective Service, which formed in 1996. Both men are retired. According to reports, the men resisted arrest and “attempted to flee back to the Russian side.” Authorities took the men to a Jõhvi prison “for resisting arrest and illegal border crossing.”
“On the Narva River, the temporary border line is marked with special buoys with a short distance between them and the border is very visible,” said one police officer. “There are relatively few accidental illegal border crossings. Resistance to border guards is encountered extremely rarely.”
The website said the arrests might be in retaliation for the arrest of Estonian Eston Kohver in early September. Russian authorities arrested Kohver on suspicion of espionage, illegally crossing the border, and illegal weapons transportation. Estonia claims Russia abducted Kohver “at gunpoint from Estonian territory.” His lawyer, Nikolai Polozov, was not allowed to visit him right away.
“Eston Kohver was charged on September 8 with espionage,” he said. “He faces up to 20 years in prison. I can’t yet give his version of events since my colleague and I only took on the case yesterday and so far have not managed to see our client. He is being held in Lefortovo pre-trial detention centre. That’s the FSB jail. In order to get inside, you have to get a special permit.”
Polozov is a high-profile lawyer who helped defend the punk rock band Pussy Riot in Russia.
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