Other events in Baltic States

According to the Security Police Board and the Public Prosecutor’s Office, two of the six detained Estonian residents are Russian citizens, one is Estonian citizen and three persons are of undetermined citizenship.

“It is regrettable that it took so long for the Russian Federal authorities to officially inform the Estonian authorities, although the Russian Minister for Defense shared this information to the press in the beginning of this week already,” said the Minister for Foreign Affairs Urmas Paet. He added that according to the good practices, the relevant countries are informed of detaining offenders before informing the public.

In accordance to the Consular Act, Estonia has to provide consular assistance to Estonian citizens as well as to persons with undefined citizenship residing in Estonia on the basis of a residence permit. The Estonian embassy in Moscow will strive to find out whether the persons concerned have been guaranteed all rights and will provide consular aid, if necessary.

The Latvian Ministry for Foreign Affairs also announced that it has received from Russia information on two residents of Latvia having been detained in connection with the Arctic Sea case – one of them is a Latvian citizen and another a person with undefined citizenship.