Ansip: Centre Party Members Spoke of Possible Funding from ex-KGB Officer
Adding fuel to the controversy over whether opposition Centre Party leader Edgar Savisaar received money from Russia in exchange for political influence, Prime Minister Andrus Ansip said that it was Centre members who spoke of Savisaar's probable request of 3 million euros for party financing from the head of Russian state railways, Vladimir Yakunin.
Yakunin is a former high-ranking KGB officer and a close ally of Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.
"The centrists have been talking about this for a long time," Ansip said in an interview with ETV.
Ansip said that when it became known that Savisaar had likely asked for the money from Yakunin, some party members lost patience and information about the request spread through party, reaching state institutions.
On December 16, Postimees wrote that a leaked document from the national counter intelligence agency, KAPO, referred to Savisaar as an "agent of Russian influence."
The document, which had been presented to the Estonian President, Prime Minister and Minister of the Interior, states that Savisaar attained 1.5 million euros to enhance the influence of the Russian Federation in Estonia.
Savisaar has dismissed the allegation, responding that the 1.5 million euros he received was a donation from the Moscow-based Andrei Pervozvannoi Fund, which Yakunin heads, for the construction of a Russian Orthodox church in the Tallinn neighborhood of Lasnamäe. He has produced a contract supporting his statement.
The Centre Party leader maintains that the allegations against him are a political ploy connected to the upcoming parliamentary elections on March 6.
