Imports from Russia: scandal in Estonia over PM's husband

Prime Minister Kaja Kallas in the storm over her husband's business activities with a St Petersburg company with unclear activities since the beginning of the war, despite the Estonian government's official endorsement of the sanctions against Moscow.

Tallinn (AsiaNews) - Just as the premier of Estonia, Kaja Kallas, was proposing a ban on entry into the EU for Russian citizens, who often use the Baltic countries as a gateway to Europe, her husband Arvo Hallik with his company Stark Logistics renewed a contract for imports from Russia, creating a major national scandal.

Investigations conducted by the Russian newsagency Bumaga and the Estonian ones Delovie Vedomosti and Aripaev, speak of an inconspicuous factory connected to the deal in the Russian town of Krasnoe Selo, the Aerodrom which produces spray cans.

Stark Logistics is a transport company that has never stopped working with Russia throughout the war in Ukraine, carrying the cargoes of the Estonian company Metaprint, and several others, to the Russian partner Aerodrom, a company where enter only with the internal pass or by appointment; but in the three-story building on the outskirts of Krasnoe Selo, south of St. Petersburg, several enterprises are located.

In reality, the director of Stark Logistics, Kristian Kraag, has declared that transport to Russia will cease in the autumn, because the Aerodrom will close its doors, but so far it seems that activities inside continue without interruptions. Indeed, in recent months the company has hired new collaborators, as shown by the job search portals.

It is not known what kind of "spray cans" the Russian company produces and who they are intended for, as the production is not illustrated in any site or publication, and even from the observations outside the gates, the journalists were unable to read any label on the packages loaded on trucks.

According to the director of Metaprint, Martti Lemendika, Aerodrom's only client would be the Russian section of his own company, but he refused to reveal which customers the products would be intended for, limiting himself to ensuring that "these are not legal entities subject to international sanctions".

The investigations observe that since 2019 Aerodrom's earnings have increased exponentially, and especially since the beginning of the invasion in Ukraine, up to almost 2 billion rubles in 2022 alone, despite the fact that the company has recorded a debt of 57 million rubles and paid the Russian state 22.5 million in taxes and insurance payments, according to the Rusprofile website.

The general director of the company, Oleg Elagin, also heads a metallurgical products industry, after having headed several other companies, one of which is Aerozolnaja Banka, which deals in general with "metal containers". He too refuses to answer questions from journalists, who are unable to contact any of the executives.

The Aerodrom could actually close in Krasnoe Selo, but to open a much larger plant even closer to St. Petersburg, definitely out of proportion for mere "spray cans". The municipality of Gatchina, to which the territory concerned refers, has already approved an investment of 1.5 billion rubles for 2023 according to a plan dating back to 2018, and other substantial funds are planned for the next two years, with the specific that "this project fits the conditions imposed by the anti-Russian sanctions issued by some European countries and the United States".

The project as a whole would predate the unpredictable Russian decision to start the war, and now it should stop given the collaboration with an "unfriendly" country like Estonia. Instead, it seems that he continues to finance the collaboration with the Russians, in a production with at least obscure specifications, and under the responsibility of the husband of the woman at the head of the government in Tallinn. The ways of circumventing the sanctions are endless, and often pass right under the nose of those who decided them.

Photo: Flickr / Finnish Government