Meelis Oidsalu, former Ministry of Defense undersecretary, published his version of Estonia's outgoing foreign intelligence chief Mikk Marran's looming departure and how he was picked to run RMK in an opinion piece published by ERR on Monday.

"Quasi-national formations, such as Enterprise Estonia or RMK, are the crown jewels of this 'power pool,'" Oidsalu wrote, suggesting top public officials are handpicked and appointed, with competitions serving as a facade.

Länts told ERR that Oidsalu's article "made for really interesting reading" but refused to take a stance on "a single person's treatment, without sources or corroboration of the information."

"I don't know how much of it is truth, how much speculation and how much fiction. I would refrain from making judgments," Länts said.

He repeated that Oidsalu's opinion is a single person's vision of things that has not been confirmed.

"No one has told me that Mikk Marran is unfit for office because of this or that. I read about these ideas for the first time today, even though the news is from a week ago. I would like to hope this will not affect us (the supervisory board – ed.) in any way. Of course, it is out there now, and we might see additional questions or debate."

Länts said that the RMK is looking for a new director for a period of five years for which a competition was held.

"That is how we picked Marran. It is very difficult for us to comment on what has happened at EFIS or other places the candidate has worked. Nor should we. We can provide an assessment once the person starts. Whether they can perform their tasks as expected or not," Länts suggested.

Oidsalu's suggestion that the RMK and EAS, as quasi-national structures, are the crown jewels of such a "power pool" (of top officials – ed.) Länts described as an obvious lie.

"I can say that the competition to find the new chairman of the board of RMK was open and nothing like what Oidsalu described in his article. Rather, it was the opposite – we hired outside help to handle the process. The supervisory board did not get involved before the candidates had been picked. There were no ready-made decisions. What Meelis Oidsalu writes about the RMK in his article is all lies," Länts said.

The supervisory board is set to discuss signing the contract with Mikk Marran on Thursday, and Länts does not believe Oidsalu's article will have any effect on the outcome, Länts said, adding that the whole process might take another week to finalize.

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