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EESTI ELU reedel, 9. septembril 2022 â Friday, September 9, 2022
Nr. 36
CONSULATE GENERAL OF ESTONIA
English-language supplement to the Estonian weekly âEESTI ELUâ Tartu College Publications Founding Chairman: Elmar TampĂ”ld Editor: Laas Leivat 3 Madison Avenue, Toronto, ON M5R 2S2 T: 416-733-4550 âą F: 416-733-0944 âą E-mail: editor@eestielu.ca Digital: www.eestielu.ca
War killings, at the covert front In 2002 Vladimir Putin ÂauÂÂthorized a new law making extra-judicial killings legal. It gave Russian authorities wide-ranging official permis sion to assassinate foreign enemies and domestic oppo nents at both home and abroad. The legislation allowed Putin to boost the Czarist/Soviet/ Russian historical tradition of âwet affairsâ and âspecial ser vicesâ. Named âOn Countering Extreme Activityâ, the law Âlegalizes targeted assassinations for not only threatening national security, but also for âcrimesâ such as âdiminishing national dignityâ and âpublicly express ing slander or false accusations of persons who hold Russian government positionsâ. The actual âspecial tasksâ, usually carried by Russian mili tary intelligence operatives, are acts of intimidation, murder, tragic accidents, and include kidnappings, âforced suicidesâ such as making victims jump from a window, car bombings and a variety of staged ÂexÂplosions. Thus, one cannot accept the veracity of the governmentâs denials that they were involved in the most recent death of Lukoil chief Ravil Maganov, who died by falling from a win dow in Russia. Add to this, the fall from a window of business man Dan Rapoport, of Russian heritage, also recently, but in Washington. This type of killing had long ago become one of the favourites for Kremlin assas sins. While the Washington po lice didnât consider Rapo portâs death to be suspicious, Russia is known to have been the only suspect in numerous killings. The murder of opponents within Russia has always been in Putinâs playbook. Many con sider it to be highly likely that he ordered the FSB to bomb apartment buildings in Moscow, killing some 300 residents in 1999. Chechen terrorists were then blamed, giving Russia Âjustification to attack Chechnya. Putinâs popularity sored, help ing him win the presidency from his job as FSB chief in 2000. In 2002 he ramped up the âwet affairsâ assignments which included eliminating those deemed to be âslanderingâ Âgovernment officials. The current, Putin-authorized killings are an effective way for
the Kremlin to intimidate live opponents while flaunting its evasion from justice in the world community. This tradition of state-sanctioned murder has a long history stretching back to Czarist Russia, and hundreds of deaths have been recorded. Not all are successful. The most Âfamous is the failed attempt at the poisoning of Rasputin, a hated religious figure who seemed to have the czarâs wife under his spell. Rasputin was immune to the cyanide-laced food he was offered and had to be shot. Because the Kremlin has always found it necessary to  eliminate its adversaries, Russian formal state-sponsored assassinations is not a new de velopment. Government killings were legalized in 1936 and assigned to a group in the  Interior Ministry, known as the âDirectorate of Special Tasksâ, targeting ethnic Russians. In the 1950, the KGB formed its â13th Departmentâ, to carry out Ââexecutive actionâ. Often agonizing methods are use in the murders to send a message to others, especially Russians. The tortuous initial attempt on Rasputin was echoed some hundred years later in 2018 when a military grade nerve agent failed to kill former Russian intelligence operative Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia. Another failed task was the attempted poisoning of Bulgarian Emilian Gebrev in 2015. Most other assassination Âassignments succeed. AlekÂsan der Litvinenko, a former FSB intelligence officer who defected to the UK, was murdered in 2006 by Russian GRU operatives using the radioactive agent Âpolonium. Political opponent Boris Nemtsov was shot on a Moscow bridge in 2015. Former Russian Duma member Denis Voronenko was gunned down on a Kyiv street in 2017. In 2015, Putinâs ex-advisor, Mik hail Lesin was found dead with a broken neck in a Washington Beltway hotel. This list of Kremlinâs sanctioned victims is endless. Putin chooses his prey from a variety of categories, often enemies of him personally: p olitical opponents, those  branded as traitors, anti corrup tion advocates, truth-seeking
Kolga presents to Parliamentary committee via ZOOM.
Kolgaâs remarks to recent session of Parliamentâs Foreign Affairs Committee Thank you Mr. Chairman and members of the committee for the opportunity to appear before you today. Over the past months Russia has threatened to starve vulner able nations around the world by blockading millions of tons of Ukrainian grain, while shell ing and bombing critical Ukrainian agricultural infra structure to induce a global grain shortage. At the same time, Russia has falsely blamed Western and Canadian sanctions for causing this food crisis despite the fact that our sanctions do not affect any Ukrainian agricultural Âinfrastructure or the transport of grain and food to those nations that rely on it. Russiaâs weaponization of hunger is matched in cruelty by its use of energy to freeze Russiaâs neighbours. Many Europeans experienced this first hand when Russia cut all gas supplies transiting Ukraine in January 2009. Canadians only recently be came aware of Putinsâ energy warfare after Global Affairs granted Gazprom a sanctions exemption to permit the repair in Canada of turbines that compress gas exported from  Russia through the Nordstream pipeline to Europe. However, the Kremlinâs use of energy as a point of geo political leverage did not emerge out of a vacuum.
journalists, business rivals. WellÂknown investigative reporter Anna Politkovskaya, reporting on atrocities by Russian forces in Chechnya, was gunned down in her apartment on Putinâs birthday in 2015. Journalists are some of the Kremlinâs recent favourite tar gets. Since 1992, 82 Russians have been tallied. Between March and May, 28 have been murdered in Ukraine â journal ists of many different nationali ties. The total number of Russian journalists who have disappeared, both in Ukraine since the invasion started, in Russia and elsewhere, is un known. Just like the failures with Skripal and Gebrev, many other attempts have ended in failure. Some suggest that this is a sign of declining professionalism â that the sheer volume recently cannot maintain quality control. But even an unsuccessful
New address as of September 26: 365 Bloor St. E, Ste 1610 Toronto, ON M4W 3L4 Phone, fax and email remain the same: 416-461-0764, faks 416-461-0448 email: consul@heinsooinsurance.ca
The next meeting of the Estonian governmentâs Global Estonian Advisory Committee will be held in Tallinn on September 30th. The meeting will be chaired by special ambassador Marin MĂ”ttus, and several Estonian ministers, including Foreign Minister Urmas Reinsalu will attend. Reet Marten Sehr is the Estonian Canadian representative on the committee and will provide feedback from EKN and Estonian organizations in Canada on the first phase of imple mentation. The program was ratified by Estonian parliament in 2021 and implementation began in January 2022. Program link: https://www.vm.ee/rahvusvaheline-suht lus-uleilmne-eestlus/uleilmne-eestlus In order to consolidate feedback, please email responses to Reet at reetsehr@gmail.com by September 20th at the latest. In order to better represent the needs of Estonian Canadians, we are requesting responses to the following questions: 1. How familiar are you with the content of the Global Estonian Program (Ăleilmse eestluse tegevuskava)? 2. How often do you use the globalestonian.com website to search for and share information? 3. How aware are you of the Estonian governmentâs grant applications and funding process? 4. Have you applied for a grant in 2022? 5. What are your organizationâs needs and expectations for future cooperation with the Estonian government? KAIRI HEMINGWAY President, Estonian Central Council in Canada
The former Vice President of Gazprom Bank, Igor Volobuyev, told a Polish newspaper in May how he was instructed by Gazprom executives to develop anti-Ukrainian narratives al ready in 2005, when Ukraineâs political trajectory shifted Âtowards Europe.
a ssassination could have its use fulness. Itâs a way of showing the middle finger to the West. They may very well want the West to know their brazen Âcapabilities. Up to now theyâve been immune to any judicial Ârecourse. Many victims of Putinâs Âcovert killings serve as examples of the fate of anyone deemed betraying or cheating the Krem lin. Targeted assassinations are not new in the covert intelli gence world. But the use of plausible deniability seems to have been abandoned. Russia is comfortable with hunting down victims worldwide and showing contempt for the laws of the Ârespective country. The Kremlin has boosted the pace of its extrajudicial death sentences  since its assault on Ukraine in 2014. Putinâs unjustified invasion this year is state-sanctioned murder on a massive scale
Gazprom are made inside the Russian presidential administra tion. If Canadaâs decision to grant Gazprom a sanctions waiver was intended to call Putinâs bluff â that mission has been Âaccomplished. It is now clear that our sanc tions did not impair Gazpromâs ability to pump gas through the Nordstream pipeline. As weâve heard from previous witnesses today: they never were. Underscoring the false nature of Russiaâs accusations was a recent report published by the BBC which exposed massive gas flares at Gazpromâs Porto vaya compression station near the Russian starting point of the NordStream pipeline. Flaring is a process by which gas producers burn off large quantities of gas for sustained periods of time. According to that report, 10 million dollars of gas are being burned off by Gazprom each day â gas which could other wise be pumped through Nordstream to Germany and Europe, or through existing pipelines that transit Ukraine and Poland. Indeed, as other witnesses have pointed out, the Kremlin has now explicitly stated that gas will only start flowing through Nordstream once Canadian and Western sanctions have been lifted. This is black mail.
LAAS LEIVAT
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He also created anti-Geor gian narratives in 2008, when Russia invaded South Ossetia and Abkhazia. According to Volobuyev, all decisions within
