The Viru District Court convicted Estonian citizen Ivan Dmitrijev, whom the Office of the Prosecutor General charged with intelligence activities against the Republic of Estonia and supporting thereof, in an agreement process. The court imposed a sentence of 4 years and 11 months of actual imprisonment on the accused.
Based on the charges, Dmitrijev cooperated with Aleksandr Bobkov, an officer of the operational department of the FSB Border Service, who tasked him with forwarding information to the FSB from March to May 2025. Among other things, the FSB was interested in information about members of the Defence League and local life in the city of Narva, such as the political situation, Narva Castle museum and the personnel of the Defence Forces present in the city.
State Prosecutor Triinu Olev-Aas said that Ivan Dmitrijev was an active member of the Defence League who fulfilled varied tasks, e.g., flying drones and other tasks related to this field. Dmitrijev’s activity could have been extremely detrimental to Estonian security in the future. Based on evidence, the accused managed to cooperate with the FSB for only two months before the Estonian Internal Security Service arrested him and prevented further cooperation.
“Russia is keenly interested in all kinds of information that it manages to collect about Estonia. The swift obstruction of criminal offences against the state and bringing people recruited by Russian intelligence authorities to justice is a part of national defence, especially in today’s situation,” said State Prosecutor Triinu Olev-Aas.
“We arrested Dmitrijev as soon as possible as he was planning to go to Russia after a training exercise of the Defence League to meet with his spymaster,” confirmed Taavi Narits, Deputy Director General of the Internal Security Service. “Recruiting Dmitrijev can be considered the FSB’s temporary success story, soon ended by the Internal Security Service and the Prosecutor’s Office. We were able to prevent significant harm to our national security by intervening at an early stage. One of the duties of the Internal Security Service is conducting counter-intelligence activities in the Defence Forces and Defence League, and this case highlights the results.”
Narits confirmed that in terms of recruitment, Russian special services particularly targeted people connected to Estonian power structures and their kin who visited Russia. “They use all kinds of methods, such as flattering, pressuring, and scaring, to obtain information that interests them and recruit people for secret cooperation. Initiating cooperation with Russian special services is like stepping into quicksand and there are only two ways of getting oneself out – with the help of the Internal Security Service or through prison, after the time prescribed by the court has passed. Unfortunately, Ivan Dmitrijev chose the latter option.”
The training exercises of the Estonian Defence Forces and Defence Leage have always been within the sphere of interest of the Russian intelligence, and the interest has grown markedly since Russia launched a war against Ukraine. We emphatically recommend that all people connected to training exercises and national defence refrain from travelling to Russia and notify the Internal Security Service if the Russian intelligence services or any people working for the services contact them.
The criminal case was investigated by the Estonian Internal Security Service, and the pre-trial investigation was directed by the Office of the Prosecutor General.
Photo: Ivan Dmitrijev crossing the Estonian-Russian border next to Estonian Internal Security Service signs warning about Russian intelligence services. Source: Estonian Police and Border Guard Board.