Estonian journalist who worked for Russian state media given 6-year sentence for treason

A court in Estonia has sentenced a journalist to six years in prison for treason and violating international sanctions for contributing to Russian state media, public broadcaster ERR reported on Wednesday.

According to the court, Svetlana Burceva worked for several years for Russian state-owned media group Rossiya Segodnya, headed by Dmitry Kiselyov, who is under EU sanctions, and thus “provided a subject of sanctions with access to economic resources”.

The investigation alleged that Burceva also maintained contacts with Roman Romachev, a reserve officer in Russia’s Federal Security Service and the head of the private intelligence company R-Techno, which, according to the Prosecutor’s Office, conducts information warfare and psyops for Russia. Their cooperation led to the publication of the book Hybrid War for Peace, which the court said aimed to undermine confidence in the Estonian authorities and destabilise society.

The sentence against Burceva is deemed to have started the day she was detained in February 2024, ERR continued. The court decision has not yet come into force, and she has the right to appeal.

Burceva became a naturalised Estonian citizen in 1994. She previously worked for online publication Sputnik Eesti, which ceased operations in 2019 due to sanctions. She worked for the news website Baltnews.ee under the pseudonym Alan Torm from 2020 to 2023.

From 2019 to 2021, she studied the Masters programme for specialists in “information and hybrid conflicts” at Sevastopol State University, in occupied Crimea. She has been a member of the pro-Russian political party Koos, Estonian for Together, since 2023.