Opposition politicians seek resignation of Baltic leader, who had called on EU companies to refrain from trade with Moscow.
Estonia’s prime minister Kaja Kallas is under mounting pressure over a scandal involving her husband’s business dealings with Russia as the Baltic country’s president and her coalition partner called for more answers and opposition politicians urged her to resign. Kallas’s husband Arvo Hallik owns a 25 per cent stake in Stark Logistics, a trucking company that has transported goods that are not under EU sanctions between Estonia and Russia, according to Estonian state broadcaster ERR.
Kallas, who loaned €350,000 to her husband’s investment vehicle that owns the stake, said neither Hallik nor Stark had any customers in Russia but had been helping an Estonian customer end its activities in Russia “in accordance with the law and sanctions”. The report adds to a growing scandal for Kallas, who emerged as one of the loudest and most influential voices in the west urging ever tougher action against Moscow after its full-scale invasion of Ukraine last year and calling on EU companies to refrain from trade with Russian businesses.
Alar Karis, president of the EU and Nato member-state, called on Kallas to “clarify matters” and then judge what the next step should be. Urmas Reinsalu, who was replaced as Estonia’s foreign minister after elections in March, called ERR’s revelations “particularly repellent”, adding that if they were true then Kallas was “acting in blatant hypocrisy. This is shameful for Estonia.” Lauri Läänemets, Estonia’s interior minister and head of the Social Democratic party in Kallas’s coalition, told ERR that the revelations were “particularly disturbing” because of the government’s “zero tolerance for any kind of business related to Russia”. Kallas told the Financial Times in May that businesses in the Baltic nation of 1.3mn people should find a “moral compass” and turn down deals that could lead to Moscow accessing goods that were under sanctions.
Läänemets added: “I am seriously concerned about the effect of the questions related to the prime minister’s status on Estonia’s reputation and credibility. In other words, how seriously we will be taken any more.” Raimond Kaljulaid, a Social Democratic MP, said the scandal could “prove fatal for Kallas as prime minister”. Opposition politicians went further, with several actively calling on Kallas to resign.
Martin Helme, head of Ekre, the far-right group that is the second-largest party in parliament, said Kallas could not remain in post because of her “brutal complicity, nor [as it is] in the interests of Estonia’s reputation”. Kallas told ERR she was “not involved in her husband’s business”. He had told her Stark Logistics was returning goods from an Estonian customer that was closing a factory there and that the trucks did not even buy fuel in Russia. “What I am absolutely certain and confident about is that my husband’s companies are not engaging in any immoral activity,” she added. Stark Logistics said all of its business was lawful and in accordance with sanctions and did not benefit Russia in any way. It intends to carry out the last delivery to Russia next month.
https://www.ft.com/content/821a1f35-a6d0-4a8b-9928-1d325376988c
