Estonian Citizen Charged with Treason for Ties to Russian State Media

Estonia's Public Prosecutor's Office has charged Svetlana Burceva, an Estonian citizen who contributed to Russian state-run media, with treason and breaching international sanctions, ERR reported on August 6.

Burceva was arrested in March after it was revealed that she had written for Balt News, a Russian state-sponsored outlet affiliated with the Kremlin-run RT news network. Another RT subsidiary, Sputnik Estonia, was closed for violating sanctions in 2019, but Burceva is accused of continuing to write for the outlet and its affiliates under a pseudonym.

According to the Public Prosecutor's Office, Burceva, who became a naturalized Estonian citizen in 1994, knowingly violated EU sanctions imposed on RT in March 2022 following Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

From 2019 to 2021, she completed a Master's degree at Sevastopol State University in Russian occupied Crimea, where she reportedly "enrolled in a program on information and hybrid conflicts, supervised and directed by a former FBI counterintelligence officer and head of a private intelligence firm registered in Russia."

Prosecutors stated that the program "aims to train international media workers and analysts to be at the forefront of combating hybrid threats Russia faces."

Upon completing her studies, Burceva allegedly co-authored a book under a different name with the program director, titled "Hybrid War for the World," which describes "a global hybrid war that Russia must win."

The book is said to be intended to create division within Estonia, according to prosecutors.

A pre-trial investigation by the Estonian Internal Security Service (ISS) "concluded that Burceva could not be considered an independent, objective, and neutral journalist."