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His company Trustcorp, which Kross runs in partnership with prominent Reform Party member Rain Rosimannus, plans to become the region's leading software developer, providing IT services in banking, medicine, telecommunications, media and other spheres, Eesti Ekspress reported. Kross is no stranger to the region. He has previously worked as a senior intelligence director for Iraq's Coalition Provisional Authority and later as a senior adviser to Iraq's defense ministry. In January, Russia declared Kross wanted for his supposed part in masterminding the hijacking of the Arctic Sea, a merchant ship that disappeared near Sweden in July 2009 only to be discovered a month later near the Cabo Verde islands. Russia later convicted a group of Russian,www.ekurd.net Latvian and Estonian citizens as well as stateless persons for hijacking it. One of those convicted named Kross as the ringleader. However, international authorities still cannot agree on whether a hijacking actually took place, and media speculation has suggested that the affair was in fact a coverup for a botched Russian security services operation. Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee chairman Marko Mihkelson has said that the affair may have been a deliberate attempt by the FSB to make Kross a fugitive. Kross is a natural target for Russia's ire. An outspoken critic of Russian foreign policy, he was also an adviser to the Government of Georgia during and after its war with Russia in 2008, coordinating the Georgian information campaign. Eerik–Niiles Kross is an Estonian diplomat, intelligence chief, entrepreneur and politician. During the 1980's, Kross was a leading figure in the anti-Soviet resistance movement in Soviet Estonia. After (re-)independence, in 1991, he joined Estonia's Foreign Ministry. He served as the head of intelligence from 1995 to 2000; and as national security advisor to former President Lennart Meri in 2000-2001. Kross represented Estonia as a diplomat in the UK, from 1990-92; then in the USA, from 1992-95. Internationally, Kross is best known as a security expert, having worked in Iraq as a Senior Director of the Coalition Provisional Authority being responsible for creating the new Iraqi Ministry of Defense and Military Intelligence. He was an advisor to the Government of Georgia during and after its war with Russia in 2008. He coordinated the Georgian information campaign. As an astute observer of foreign affairs, he has published more than a 100 articles on Russian foreign policy, NATO and Estonian-Russian relations. Kross is a well known critic of the Russian foreign policy and Vladimir Putin. In 2011, Russian authorities accused him of masterminding the 2009 hijacking of the MV Arctic Sea off the coast of Sweden.[4] [5] The Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee in Estonia, rejected this accusation as a fabrication by Russia's FSB; although Estonia's Government has conceded that, Russia has many reasons for hating Kross. Kross is currently one of the leading moderate-conservative politicians in Estonia. In the summer of 2011, the Estonian media claimed that he is the only independent political figure who could lead a new political party. Nonetheless, Kross joined the moderate-conservative IRL in November, 2011, and was elected to the Party Executive. He currently serves on the Advisory Board to the Ministry of Defense. Kross, a historian by training, is a recognized authority on Estonia's armed resistance to Soviet occupation. He has published several books and written scripts for documentary films. He wrote the script for the 2006 documentary, The Blue Hills (Sinimäed), which received the Estonian Cultural Foundation's Film of the Year Award; also, special mention at the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival Copyright ©, respective author or news agency, Estonian Public Broadcasting news.err.ee | wikipedia.org |
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