Estonia Makes Donors to Russia’s Army Compensate Ukraine in Landmark Policy

Estonia’s State Prosecutor’s Office has introduced a new approach to prosecuting individuals who provide financial support to Russia’s military, requiring offenders to make substantial payments to Ukrainian causes instead.

According to ERR on October 14, citing Eesti Ekspress, the policy was recently applied in the case of a cryptocurrency investor who donated to a Russian organization supplying equipment to troops fighting in Ukraine. The unnamed individual made three small transfers from his Binance account in 2022, totaling $59.50.

The payments were flagged by Estonia’s Internal Security Service (KaPo), as the first transaction occurred in June 2022—just a month after Estonia amended its penal code to criminalize support for acts of aggression by a foreign state.

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Assistant State Prosecutor Margaret Beres decided to apply an alternative legal measure that allows cases to be closed without trial if the suspect fulfills certain conditions. The investor agreed to donate an amount 30 times greater than his original contributions—$1,785—to a Ukrainian charity.

The prosecutor’s office randomly selected the recipient, the Ukrainian Cultural Center in Tallinn. The offender must also complete 75 hours of community service within six months.

Beres stated that if the suspect fails to comply with these requirements, the case will be reopened and full criminal proceedings resumed.

Earlier, Russia was using cryptocurrency payments to fund saboteurs carrying out hybrid operations across the European Union, aiming to obscure financial traces from intelligence services.

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