From patriotism to treason, a classic case revisited (III)

In 2014 Russia kidnapped KAPO counterintelligence officer Eston Kohver on an operation allegedly on the east side of the border. After spending a year in a Russian prison, he was exchanged for a Russian FSB spy Estonia had caught. This prompted the government to issue a general advisory for all state and military personnel (a ban, practically) for travel to Russia. Metsavas could no longer pass on documents to Anton in St. Petersburg.

The GRU had made contact with him in 2008 as he left his mother’s home in Lasnamäe, and in December of that year he was contacted by his GRU handlers in St. Petersburg. This is when his assignments started.

In 2014, being forbidden to travel to Russia, where he met his handler, Metsavas thought he could extricate himself from a self-destructive situation. The travel ban gave him a solid excuse to opt out. In fact in 2013 he had already told Anton that he wanted to quit.

Other circumstances compounded his motive to abandon the GRU. While serving with Estonian soldiers in Afghanis tan, in a war zone, a deeper feeling of camaraderie in Metsavas built up while facing an enemy together. Military risk pay, in a combat region, was three times higher than the normal rate. It was this growing sense of belonging, coupled with a strengthened financial existence, that also spurred Metsavas’ decision to end the GRU tasks.

But the KGB was well prepared for Metsavas’ inability to visit Russia. In 2012, when Metsavas was in Afghanistan, the GRU made a visit to his father, Pjotr Volin, to Russky Island, off shore from Vladivostok in Russia’s far east. Volin, divorced from Metsavas’s mother, had moved there, to the home of his partner’s parents. He had remained loyal to Russia even after gaining his Estonian citizenship.

He was easy to recruit. Added to his allegiance to Russia, he needed money for his wife’s treatment from illness. His previous role as a Soviet border guard, a branch of the KGB, was probably also an incentive to co-operate. KAPO has even considered the possibility of Volin’s role right from the start. First in his son’s decision to join the Estonian defense forces, then Metsavas’ recruitment by the GRU.

Up until 2014, when the travel restriction was applied, the GRU didn’t need Volin’s services. But Metsavas stuck to his agreement to meet with Anton in St. Petersburg even after the travel ban. Compounding his conflicted sense of obedience and loyalty was the news of his partner’s – future wife’s – pregnancy. Now it was too late to give himself up. His bridges were burned.

He was forced to continue his life’s dichotomies – a military defender of his country’s independence while helping to advanced the interests of its aggressive adversary – a Russian spy and a loyal Estonian soldier.

He had been asked if he were forced to chose between two loyalties, would he fight against Russia if Estonia was attacked. Unequivocally he stated his loyalty to Estonia. It seemed to be a genuine declaration.

He knew he was betraying fellow soldiers, those with whom he served in a war zone. He betrayed his students. And he fooled his own constituency, ethnic Russians for whom he was an authentic model of success in the Estonian army, an organization that supposedly attracts and advances Estonian “real patriots” – a perception that in Metsava’s case proved to be false.

Even though Metsavas never blamed anyone but himself for the trap he created for himself, he was still blackmailed into committing treason. Anton knew exactly the buttons to push to keep his recruit compliant. Metsavas will never know if by divulging his story to the Estonian military he could have fed the Russians deliberately misleading information. After being unmasked by KAPO he confessed all.

Metsavas’ vexing dilemma ended one morning when he drove his young son to nursery school for his first day. The boy clung anxiously to his father’s hand until he was promised some ice cream later. Metsavas phoned his wife to report on their son’s eventual willingness to join the other kids.

He left the nursery for work. Less than one quarter kilometre away several KAPO cars waited for him and he was arrested for spying. With Metsavas, the GRU’s undeniable ability to clandestinely manipulate and build a relationship with a recruit had finally withered.

LAAS LEIVAT