Kross Appointed MoD Adviser, Letter to Interpol Elicits Backlash
IRL politician Eerik-Niiles Kross will on October 28 take up a part-time post as a political adviser for Defense Minister Urmas Reinsalu, who is also his party's chairman.
Kross has been in the news for gaining significant ground for his party in the recent elections, and also for being put on Interpol's watch list.
Starting work on October 28, Kross will focus on further advancing the role of reserve forces in national defense, a bastion of the Estonian military, as well as expanding defense education in schools and veteran support, reported uudised.err.ee.
Kross is also a businessman and has held high-level security positions. He was a security adviser for former president Lennart Meri.
Letter to Interpol draws criticism
Meanwhile, two former interior ministers, Margus Leivo and Kalle Laanet, took issue with Interior Minister Ken-Marti Vaher's formal request to Interpol, reported uudised.err.ee.
Vaher had asserted that the wanted notice concerning Kross was politically motivated, demanding that it be taken down from Interpol's website.
But Leivo and Laanet called the move strange and unnecessary, saying that if Estonia's message is that the notice is politically motivated, then Estonia should not lower itself to the same level by involving political, rather than administrative, officials in the matter.
"This is at the moment is the area of the prosecutor, justice institutions, Justice Ministry officials or the head of the police's major crimes investigation unit," Leivo said.
The notice in question conveys an arrest warrant from Russian authorities, who alleged that Kross was involved in the claimed hijacking of a ship in 2009. Kross denies the accusations and Estonian authorities have maintained that the accusations are baseless.