Estonia's security police (KaPo) have branded Tallin mayor and opposition leader Edgar Savisaar Moscow's "agent of influence," in a letter to the country's government, the local Postimees newspaper said.
Savisaar has been marked in counterintelligence reports as a "security threat" since June, the paper said.
The latest report suggests that the mayor received $1.5 million from Moscow to "increase Russia's influence on Estonia." The paper noted that this was the exact sum spent on the construction of a Russian Orthodox church in Tallinn's most populated Lasnamae district.
"The career of one party politician is not the only thing at stake; this also involves the image of the entire state and people's trust in it," Postimees said.
Both KaPo chief commissar Andres Kahar and Savisaar refused to comment on the information, the paper said, adding that the mayor has not yet been interrogated by police.
Savisaar's opposition Centre Party is the second largest in the Estonian parliament and enjoys the support of the country's Russian-speaking community. In December 2004, the party signed a cooperation agreement with Russia's pro-Kremlin United Russia party.
TALLINN, December 16 (RIA Novosti)
