Estonia establishes GRU involvement in memorial desecration — ERR News
In Estonia, the Internal Security Service (KAPO) established that the damage to memorials commemorating those killed in the battles for the Blue Hills in the village of Vaivara was ordered by Russia's GRU. The Russian Federation, an aggressor state, is increasingly recruiting local petty criminals through social media for such operations, ERR News reports.
Tasks via Telegram
Three residents of Maardu were detained in the case: Martin Jaagumets, who was 23 at the time, 22-year-old Aleksandr Grebelyuk, and a 14-year-old teenager. According to prosecutor Hardi Anderson, they were members of the same Telegram group, where they posted an offer for four arsons.
The clients, using the aliases Hardu and Said, provided addresses and instructions: find a car, buy lighter fluid, carry out the arson, record it on video, and send the footage as proof of completion. They were promised €1,000 for each task.
On the night of October 29–30, the young men set fire to a Mercedes-Benz in the courtyard of a residential building in Tallinn's Lasnamäe district. The following night, they set fire to the car of entrepreneur Ruslan and tried to set fire to his country house. On the night of October 31 to November 1, they damaged memorials in Vaivara. According to KAPO's conclusion, this task was ordered by the GRU.
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Sentences and further investigation
Investigators obtained videos that the perpetrators recorded for the clients. According to the Estonian security service, the fire attacks on Ruslan's property were not ordered by Russian intelligence. The motive for these attacks remains the subject of a separate investigation by Estonia's Police and Border Guard Board.
The members of the group were held accountable and convicted. Since they proved that they did not know about the connection between the order concerning the memorial and a hostile state, they were found guilty of damaging another person's property and desecrating the memory of the deceased, and received partially suspended sentences.
KAPO bureau chief Marta Tuul said that perpetrators are often initially offered simple tasks, and after completing them may be assigned arsons or attempts on people's lives. Security expert Meelis Oidsalu noted that such perpetrators usually have no special training and are financially vulnerable people who have previously had problems with the law.
