A court in Estonia has sentenced Svetlana Burceva, who cooperated with the Rossiya Segodnya International Information Agency (the media group behind Russia Today), to six years in prison on charges of treason and violating international sanctions.
Burceva acquired Estonian citizenship through naturalization in 1994. Since 2017, she had been working for Estonian online outlets affiliated with the propaganda media group Rossiya Segodnya: for Sputnik Estonia (Sputnik Eesti) until it ceased operations in 2019, and then for the Baltnews website from 2020-2023. Much of Burceva’s work for the latter was published pseudonymously.
In 2023, Burceva joined the pro-Russian party Koos (Together). One of its leaders, Aivo Peterson, has also been charged with treason.
Estonian news outlet ERR reports that Svetlana Burceva violated an international sanction by working for the Russian Federation media company RIA Rossiya Segodnya [the media group behind the Kremlin's propaganda outlet Russia Today RT], whose CEO Dmitry Kiselyov is included in the list of financial sanctions, according to a court spokesperson.
In doing so, Burceva made economic resources available to a sanctioned individual by writing articles and providing photos for the RIA Rossiya Segodnya/Baltnews online publication.
Burceva was also accused of establishing and maintaining a relationship antagonistic to the Republic of Estonia with a foreign national, Roman Romachev, and assisting him as well as the Russian Federation organization R-Techno in nonviolent acts directed against the independence and sovereignty of the Republic of Estonia.
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Harju District Court established that Roman Romachev is a reserve officer of the FSB, and head of the private intelligence company R-Techno. Among other tasks, this company is responsible for creating a talent pool for the system the Russian Federation is currently developing to combat information warfare and psychological operations.
Romachev's role in the "Information and Hybrid Conflicts" master's program at Sevastopol State University was not only to act as a guest lecturer, but also recruit future agents of influence from among the students.
According to the court, the purpose of Romachev and Burceva establishing their relationship was to start jointly publishing various writings aimed at supporting the Russian Federation's foreign and security policy goals, including carrying out influence operations in so-called near abroad countries.
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