FSB kidnap Estonian counter intelligence officer at gunpoint
The FSB operation included the usage of both smoke grenades and communication jammers according to the Estonian forces and based on border meetings with Russian border guards it does not seem like the FSB informed the border guards.
And some more information from the GuardianSource
According to the Internal Security Service (ISS), Estonia's national agency for counterintelligence and high-profile corruption investigations, one of their officials was abducted at gunpoint on Friday morning at Luhamaa border checkpoint, where he was discharging service duties, and taken to Russia.
Initially there was little indication it was necessarily more than an isolated criminal incident, but within several hours it had developed into a diplomatic row, with the Estonian and Russian intelligence agencies advancing completely opposite versions of the events.
The report of the abduction broke around 16:00, seven hours after it happened. At about 19:00, the FSB, the Russian security agency, was first to mention the name of the agent, Eston Kohver, which was later confirmed by the ISS. That was the only detail consistent in the versions, with the Russians putting forward a claim that Kohver was captured on the Russian side.
However, Russian border guards said earlier in the day they had no knowledge of the incident. The ISS also said that Russian border guards went to the scene with them and established that there had been a struggle. Nor did the Russian side provide any evidence that Kohver had strayed into Russia.
President Toomas Hendrik Ilves returned from a late meeting at the ISS (KaPo or Kaitsepolitsei in Estonian) at 23:00 and tweeted: "Just back from KAPO. Confirmed that abduction occurred in the course of cross border corruption investigation. Documented. On Estonian soil."
The ISS said the incident occurred at about 9:00 on the Estonian side of the border and was preceded by jamming of communications and use of a smoke grenade; the interference was said to originate from the Russia side.
The ISS said the official was in the process of interdiction of a cross-border crime.
The area is in Vőru County, by Russian border post #121. The border lacks major fortifications; the area is thinly populated.
The whereabouts of the official were not known at first. Martin Arpo, deputy director of the ISS, told Delfi later in the evening that he had been told by the Russians that the official was alive and well and in the hands of the FSB, but that he had yet to obtain confirmation.
There was no immediate explanation on the late disclosure of the incident - more than six hours after it occurred - which comes during a period of more tense relations with Russia.
Officials at Press Conference: Bilateral Border Guard Meeting Held; Russians 'Knew Nothing' of Abduction
Officials from the ISS (Kaitsepolitsei or KaPo in Estonian) and the Office of the Prosecutor General held a press conference at 17:00.
Arnold Sinisalu, director general of the ISS (pictured, center), said that Estonian and Russian border guards met for a briefing at the Estonians' initiative at 13:00. At the meeting on the border, the Russian side said it had no reports of the incident. Both sides visited the scene and established that there were indeed signs of a violent struggle with tracks leading to the Russian side, Sinisalu said. Sinisalu added that there was no indication of a firefight, or of an injury or bloodshed.
Asked for other details, such as whether the official was alone, Sinisalu said they were not immediately available or could not be released yet. He did, however, rule out terrorism.
He cautioned against speculation on the identity of the agent. He said he did not want to speculate on the motive and said there was no clear political reason.
A criminal case has been launched on counts of abduction and illegal border crossing.
Given the current issues in Ukraine it would be very interesting to see what made the FSB conduct such an operation against Estonian officials. I know that the Estonian government got some major issues with Russian spies but it would be interesting to know if Kohver is going to be used as a bargaining chip to protect Russian interests or if he simply interferred in some FSB sanctioned deals and had to be dealt with.Full article
The hope that the affair would turn out to be low-key was initially strengthened when Estonian and Russian border guards performed a joint inspection, which seemed to verify the evidence of an incursion from Russia into Estonia, including multiple footprints in a band of raked sand in that runs through no-man's land.
By Sunday, however, it became increasingly clear that Russia had other ideas. The Estonian was taken to Moscow where he was paraded before television cameras. The Russian Federal Security Service, the FSB, successor to the Soviet KGB, claimed Kohver had been caught on Russian soil.
The FSB said in a statement: "A Taurus handgun with ammunition, €5,000 in cash, special equipment for concealed audio recording and documents that bear evidence of an intelligence mission were seized from the intruder."
The statement appeared ominous for Kohver, whom the FSB had identified as a Kapo officer as far back as 2011, saying he was one of several agents trying to recruit agents as they crossed the border. The decision to bring him to Moscow and put him on television made it clear that Moscow was not interested in finding a quick and quiet means of resolving the incident.
Kadri Liik, a policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations, said: "My first guess was that this was to do with cross-border smuggling which happened to be sponsored by the Russian security services, which wouldn't be that unusual. The lines are pretty blended. It could be that Kohver got in the way of a business deal, but if it is business, it's clearly a business with Moscow connections."
The question of Kohver's future now looks likely to become a lever for a resurgent Russia to work on its small Baltic neighbour, which at last week's Nato summit declared itself in favour of hosting a new Nato base.
"This is not something cooked up the day before yesterday," said Eerik-Niiles Kross, a former Estonian intelligence chief and national security advisor. "I don't know if it was an FSB shady deal that went wrong, but whatever it was, you have to put it in the general context. The timing is either an odd coincidence, or it is a signal."
There is nothing new about Estonia and Russia conducting spy operations against each other. President Ilves recently claimed Estonia had unmasked four Russian moles in the past five years. In 2008, it was discovered that the top security official in the Estonian defence ministry, Herman Simm, was a Russian agent. In the past two years, Kapo found two more double agents in its own ranks.
In 2007, Estonian government institutions came under a series of crippling cyber-attacks which Tallinn blamed on Russia, but which Moscow denied. In 2008, an ethnic Russian living in Estonia was fined for his part in the attacks.
But the Kohver incident points towards a new gloves-off approach by the FSB.
"I don't know of any other incident of a foreign national being taken on foreign soil. To kidnap a Nato country's intelligence official on foreign territory is unprecedented," Kross said. Nevertheless, he added, raising the stakes would be unlikely to help Kohver. "No one is interested in bringing Nato in on a practical level. The aim will be to try to deal with this on a local, bilateral level."
Marko Mikhelson, the chairman of the foreign affairs committee in the Estonian parliament, agreed that it did not serve the country's interests to escalate the issue into an international crisis. said: "It seems the Russians are trying to paint this event into a bigger story. I don't want to speculate on their aims, but remember they have done these kinds of acts that affect the sovereignty of other countries," Mikhelson said. "But we have been dealing with difficult issues with Russia for years. I don't see the need now for a bigger action. But we'll strengthen the border and keep our eyes open."
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Originally Posted by Treize
That's just the sort of ignorant statement I would expect to see in the Mudpit, though. To be fair, I don't recall any recent gruesome acts of torture committed by the Russians in interrogations of prisoners, 
