Profile of Dressen Emerges as More Circumspect Version of Simm
The profile of Aleksei Dressen, suspected of treason, is becoming clearer: younger and sharper than Hermann Simm, his notorious and convicted predecessor in subversive activity.
Apart from the fact that Dressen and Simm moved in different circles and independently of each other - nor did Dressen participate in the KAPO investigation into Simm - the meetings with handlers went the same way: often in third countries or using Dressen's wife Viktoria as a go-between.
In general, KAPO officials cannot travel to Russia.
KAPO director general Raivo Aeg said that Dressen had frequent official business and holidays in third countries. "We know who controlled him," said Aeg.
Investigators say that although Dressen is becoming more cooperative, he will not be as easy a nut to crack as Simm. Apart from assembling a solid case for court, investigators also want to find out the extent of the damage.
Both Simm and Dressen had some professional problems. Simm had been sacked as a police commissioner before being recruited by Russian foreign intelligence in 1995. Dressen had to leave the position of department director because of irregularities with earmarked money in 2001, and in 2007 he came to work intoxicated.
Dressen's personal wealth seemed much different from the Simms' more profligate spending habits. Dressen had a modest flat in Maardu, a multiethnic industrial-tinged town of 18,000 next door to Tallinn.
But the national security agency say he received good pay from the FSB.
"At the same time, we have to take into account that he was practically the only gainfully employed member of the family," said director general Aeg.
Investigators say much of the Dressens' money was invested in their children, one of whom is studying in the UK, another in a local private school.
Now much of their assets, including an amount of cash found during a search of their home, has been frozen. A decision of whether it will be expropriated by the state is pending.
As to the fear raised by state officials immediately after the Dressen case broke - that there could be many more agents like Dressen - another expert on Russia agrees.
Vladimir Jushkin, director of the Baltic Centre for Russian Studies, told ETV that KGB agents were plentiful in the post-Soviet world and it could be "two, even ten years" before they appear.
"The service called KGB established a deep-seated network of agents for many years in advance. And an agent could not be active for ten years, then be switched on again," said Jushkin.
He said the most damaging part of Dressen's actions could be that he forwarded to FSB - the KGB's current equivalent - information on the Estonian national security agency (KAPO) employees as well as covert operatives operating in Dressen's sphere.
Kristopher Rikken