Erkki Bahovski, the editor-in-chief of the Estonian Diplomaatia periodical noted in an interview with a Voice of America correspondent that the harsh sentence handed down by a court in Pskov Oblast to an Estonian citizen is consistent with the Russian authorities’ tack of public opposition to the West. The expert said that the legal basis for trying the citizen, Eston Kohver, was fairly dubious: “As far as we know, Kohver was operating on Estonian territory, due to which there is no legal grounds for trying him in Russia.”
Erkki Bahovski, the editor-in-chief of the Estonian Diplomaatia periodical noted in an interview with a Voice of America correspondent that the harsh sentence handed down by a court in Pskov Oblast to an Estonian citizen is consistent with the Russian authorities’ tack of public opposition to the West. The expert said that the legal basis for trying the citizen, Eston Kohver, was fairly dubious: “As far as we know, Kohver was operating on Estonian territory, due to which there is no legal grounds for trying him in Russia.”
Erkki Bahovski said he believed that such a long sentence for a citizen from a neighbouring country that is an EU member is propaganda that is mainly intended for Russian domestic consumption. “Maybe there are other motives that we don’t know. But the Kohver court case forces us of think of similar processes during Soviet times, when concepts like justice and fair trials didn’t mean much,” said Bahovski.
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