Aleksei Dressen (born 1968 in

Riga Riga (; lv, Rīga , liv, Rīgõ) is the capital and largest city of Latvia and is home to 605,802 inhabitants which is a third of Latvia's population. The city lies on the Gulf of Riga at the mouth of the Daugava river where it meets the Ba ...

) is a former

Estonian Internal Security Service The Estonian Internal Security Service ( et, Kaitsepolitsei, officially et, Kaitsepolitseiamet, KaPo for short) is a central national security institution of Republic of Estonia. Its purposes are centered on enforcing constitutional order. Th ...

officer convicted for treason. He was convicted with cooperating with Russian intelligence service FSB. He is an ethnic

Volga German The Volga Germans (german: Wolgadeutsche, ), russian: поволжские немцы, povolzhskiye nemtsy) are ethnic Germans who settled and historically lived along the Volga River in the region of southeastern European Russia around Saratov a ...

.Raivo Aeg: Traitor operated for years
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Biography

During Soviet rule of Estonia, Aleksei Dressen worked as a policeman in the Soviet militia. In 1993 he started working for the reestablished Estonian Security Police. In 1994 he lost his police ID. A year later there was a disciplinary charge for wrongful conduct at work. This happened several times during his career. In 1999 his salary was cut by 30% for two months. Despite all this Aleksei Dressen managed to become a director of several different units in the Estonian Security Police. Aleksei Dressen and his wife Viktoria were arrested on the morning of 22 February 2012 at

Tallinn Airport Tallinn Airport ( et, Tallinna lennujaam, ) or Lennart Meri Tallinn Airport ( et, Lennart Meri Tallinna lennujaam) is the largest airport in Estonia, which serves as a hub for the national airline Nordica, as well as the secondary hub for Air ...

. Viktoria was about to board a flight to Moscow. During the arrest a thumb drive full of information was seized. The chief architect behind Dressen's capture is considered to be the deputy chief of the Estonian Security Police

Aleksander Toots Aleksander Toots (born 1969 in Kohtla-Järve) is the deputy director of Estonia's counterintelligence service Estonian Internal Security Service, also known as KAPO. He started his career in Ida-Viru police precinct. Since 1993 he has held differe ...

. In 2012 Dressen was sentenced to 16 years in prison. On 26 September 2015, he was handed over to Russia in exchange for

Eston Kohver Eston Kohver (born 1971) is an Estonian officer of the Estonian Internal Security Service who was detained by the Russian FSB on 5 September 2014 under disputed circumstances, creating a major political rift in Estonia–Russia relations. In Russ ...

. The prisoners were exchanged in a manner reminiscent of the

Cold War The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...

spy exchanges on a bridge over Piusa River.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dressen, Aleksei Living people Estonian spies 1968 births People convicted of spying for the Russian Federation Prisoners and detainees of Estonia 2012 in Estonia People from Riga Estonian people of Russian descent Estonian people of German descent Estonia–Russia relations 2012 crimes in Estonia