One of the leaders of the pro-Russian Koos party and Estonian citizen Aivo Peterson was sentenced to 14 years in prison for treason by Harju District Court on Thursday.
The trial, which began in November 2023, dealt with allegations of treason against Estonian citizens Peterson and Dmitri Rootsi, as well as claims that Peterson and Russian citizen Andrei Andronov acted to undermine Estonia’s independence.
The charges were connected to meetings with Russian politicians, aligning policy positions, the organization of an independent civil defense organization, and a Russian-funded press trip to occupied Ukraine.
According to the indictment, Peterson and Rootsi, based on instructions received from Russia, knowingly and in an organized manner assisted Russia and people acting on behalf of Russian authorities in non-violent activities directed against the independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Republic of Estonia from October 2022 to March 10, 2023.
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If we’re talking about an actual plot, an actionable conspiracy, a plan that says this guy, that guy and that guy, on that day, with those guns, etc, then there is nothing wrong with it. If we’re talking in other words about a conspiracy for a coup d’état, then nothing wrong with foiling and punishing. But between that and forming a political party that advocates for this and that policy, and then puts it to the electorate through a democratic process, there is a LOT of space. Lumping all of that space in a single pot of traitors is extremely dangerous for democracy. That’s how you get McCarthyism, that’s frankly exactly how you get Putinism. Reading the descriptions of this case, this looks more like some shade of light grey.
And when it comes to “cessession of national sovereignty”, that’s even more vague. In Quebec, there is an active independence movement. That would be an infringement in Canadian national sovereignty. In Alberta there are idiots who argue for the 51st state bullshit. In Catalonia they talk about ending Spanish sovereignty. In Corsica, in Basque, in Scotland, I could go on. A democracy has ways of handling these that are not “call them traitors and put them in jail”. For the far right, participation in international organisations like the EU or in the United States even participation in the UN is often brought up as cessation of national sovereignty.
Basically, what I’m saying is the question that you’re asking sounds simple but it is nowhere near simple.
Very fair take
Learn the difference between cessation and cessession
I brought up cessessionist movements as examples of cases where there is a legitimate case for protecting national sovereignty against a minority that doesn’t see itself in the bigger national polity. For nationalists cessession is cessation.
But my argument is not limited to cessassionist movements. I also mention the 51st state idiots that are actually very close parallels to the Estonian case.