A Model Estonian Soldier Who Spied for Russia

The frightening thing about an intelligence officer pitching you is the moment that it happens and feelings of fear, being overwhelmed (Is this really happening? Who are they? Where are they from? I thought they were X but really they are Y? Why me? Why now? What do they want? Will they hurt me or my loved ones if I don't agree? Are they recording this? Who else can I not trust? What do they know about me? How much do they know about me? How did they find out about XYZ? Do they know about my other thing? How can I stop this? Do I want to stop this? Can I trust them? Etc etc etc)

If the person being pitched can compose themselves and buy time to think there is nearly always a way out. Despite what people think intelligence pitching usually has an element of bluff. A handler making a pitch deep down knows this.

If the person being leveraged can find a way to call the bluff (and fight the fear of blackmail) usually the handler will back off - despite what they may say they might do ("We will expose you"). It's generally too risky for the handler to get involved in games and threats of exposing the blackmail evidence. Afterall, they want to continue in their job and aren't gonna risk damaging their own cover, career etc by trying to burn a source who rejected them. Most pitches fail.

Plus a person willing to fight their fear and run the risk of the blackmail compromise being exposed isn't likely to be someone who you are going to easily be able to control. The KGB trying to blackmail the Indonesian President over sex tapes comes to mind...the perfect response:

Given Sukarno’s boasts, the KGB shouldn’t have been too surprised that its efforts to blackmail him went astray. “When the Russians later confronted him with a film of the lurid encounter, Sukarno was apparently delighted,” Lister wrote. “Legend has it he even asked for extra copies.”

https://medium.com/war-is-boring/the-cia-and-kgb-tried-to-bl...

Of course it is worth pointing out that blackmail isn't usually a very good method of pitching someone and turning them into a source. It comes with too many problems. Smart and more effective pitches tilt towards cooperation not coercion.

How do you know so much and can you talk more about the intelligence trade?

Interesting, so she must have led him to the camera bugged sex motel and particular room, where he was then accused of rape

exasperated by prostitution being illegal in Russia and just fighting that alone would have torpedoed his military career in Estonia

fascinating.

so many tweaks to personal choices as well as that society which could have prevented all of this.

That's his perception and what (if this story is fully true) led him to take that particular option.

The alternative and smarter choice would have been to walk straight into his commander, tell them what happened, pass it up the chain to Estonian Counter Intelligence, deal with the short/medium term repurcussions and live a normal life. This stuff happens all the time in business and government. Though it seems like it, it's actually not a massive deal to report this stuff, it's why counter intelligence exists (or corporate security in the business context).

I would guess and say there have probably been dozens of times in Estonia alone when people took the smart option and reported things.

I find it funny that Christopher Nolan is shooting a spy movie less than a hundred meters away from this guy's prison cell.

Somehow I don't expect the movie to be as interesting as this real story is.