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The prisoner exchange in 2018 (Picture published by the Estonian domestic intelligence agency Kapo): Zinchenko is the second man from the right
Photo: KAPO/AP
According to media reports, a former agent of the Russian military intelligence service GRU fled to Estonia after the country had exposed him years earlier, convicted him and handed him back to Russia in a prisoner exchange.
Artem Zinchenko asked the Estonian authorities for asylum, reported the Estonian daily newspaper "Eesti Päevaleht" and "Yahoo News".
Zinchenko says he fled his homeland because of the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine.
"It's the worst scenario I can imagine," he said of the war, according to Yahoo News.
"And not only because my relatives live there, but also because of the large number of innocent victims".
Of course he wanted Russia to be part of the world, Zinchenko said.
"But I see no future in this country" - except one in which North Korea and Russia cooperate.
President Vladimir Putin “himself decided to start a war.
I think some institutions should not allow him to do that«.
Putin's regime has "all aspects of totalitarianism."
Spying on Estonian military installations
Years ago, Estonia exposed Zinchenko as a spy – in 2017 he was sentenced to five years in prison.
"Yahoo News" quoted from the judgment, according to which Zinchenko was commissioned to spy on "objects of national defense" and critical infrastructure.
He spied in ports and two cities, one of which has the Estonian military stationed and the other is home to a NATO air force base.
Accordingly, Zinchenko had lived in the country with his family since 2013 and officially sold strollers.
"Before and during my trial, I saw that the law works much better here than in Russia," Zinchenko said, according to the reports.
The Estonians made it clear that "they are not out to destroy my life or my business.
It's a competition between intelligence agencies, they explained, and I'm in the thick of it."
He sent his wife and three sons ahead
In February 2018, Zinchenko was reportedly exchanged for the Estonian Raivo Susi, who was imprisoned in Russia for alleged espionage.
After around five years at home, Zinchenko then decided to flee back to Estonia.
The article goes on to say that he sold his apartment in St. Petersburg and sent his wife and three sons to the EU country.
According to Yahoo News, Zinchenko believes that the GRU did not have time to monitor him amid the war in Ukraine.
That's why he was able to escape.
Only he knows whether he is actually still spying for Russia.
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