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Estonia detects network of Russian 'influence agents': report

PR dla Zagranicy
Victoria Bieniek 26.07.2018 12:12
Estonian intelligence officers have detected a network of Russian “influence agents”, US government-funded broadcaster Voice of America has reported.
Kremlin. Photo: Wikimedia Commons/alexandergusev.com (CC BY-SA 3.0).Kremlin. Photo: Wikimedia Commons/alexandergusev.com (CC BY-SA 3.0).

The broadcaster quoted Mikk Marran, the director general of Estonia’s Foreign Intelligence Service, as saying: ”We have detected a network of politicians, journalists, diplomats, business people who are actually Russian influence agents and who are doing what they are told to do”.

Politicians who had been “in the margins of local politics some years ago are actually right now in national parliaments or national governments,” Voice of America quoted Marran as saying.

Marran alleged Russia provided those people with “media support, political support” and, on some occasions, with “financial aid”, Voice of America reported.

But the broadcaster added that Marran declined to name any suspected "influence agents."

Marran’s statements appeared on Voice of America’s website after a recent meeting in Helsinki between the US and Russian presidents during which the US leader, Donald Trump, said he did not “see any reason why Russia would” meddle in US elections in 2016.

He later backtracked, explaining he meant to say “wouldn’t”.

After the Trump-Putin meeting, Polish conservative MP Jacek Sasin said that Poland “had nothing to worry about” because “history shows the US is a reliable ally”. (vb/pk)

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