The FSB claims that the consul of Estonia Mart Lightte tried to get information about the "Russian plans in the Arctic." The same plans are published on the Gosre resources of the Russian Federation • Novaya Gazeta • RIMA

The FSB claims that the consul of Estonia Mart Lightte tried to get information about the "Russian plans in the Arctic." The same plans are published on the Gosre resources of the Russian Federation

The Federal Security Service said that the Estonian diplomat Martin Lightte tried to receive closed information about Russia's plans in the Arctic, and published a video of its detention on July 6. This was reported at the Center for Public Relations of the FSB.

According to the FSB, Lightta met a Russian citizen several times and was interested in this information, "while Lightte obviously understood that the named documents were closed." In the video transferred by the service in the media, part of the meeting of Lightte is recorded. It is discussing the activities of Russia in the Arctic zone, the interlocutor offers him “a plan for the implementation of the state policy, then a plan for the implementation of the chairmanship, and also the president’s decree on <...> politics in the Arctic zone.”

The Russian event plan in the Arctic is located in open sources: it is available on the website of the network edition of Arctic and the North, and the news note on the adopted concept is on the website of the Russian government. The Decree of the President of the Russian Federation on the basics of state policy in the Arctic until 2035 was published on the Kremlin website.

Screenshot from the website of the magazine "Arctic and the North"

The day after the detention, Martin Lightte was declared a person Non Grata and expelled from Russia. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that “there are irrefutable evidence of the illegal activity <...> of the Estonian“ diplomat ”, and the FSB indicated that his actions are“ clearly hostile ”.

The Estonian Foreign Ministry considered the detention of Lightte with a provocation. According to the ministry, the consul during the detention was at a working meeting at the St. Petersburg State Polytechnic University. “This is another example of the fact that Russia is not interested in friendly relations with neighboring countries,” said the representative of the department of RBC.