Financial Times: “Estonian PM Kaja Kallas urged to clarify husband’s Russian business ties”

Kallas’s husband Arvo Hallik owns a 25 per cent stake in Stark Logistics, a trucking company that has transported goods that are not under EU sanctions between Estonia and Russia, according to Estonian public broadcaster ERR.

Kallas, who loaned €350,000 to her husband’s investment vehicle that owns the stake, said neither Hallik nor Stark had any customers in Russia but had been helping an Estonian customer end its activities in Russia in accordance with the law and sanctions.

The report adds to a growing scandal for Kallas, who emerged as one of the loudest and most influential voices in the west urging ever tougher action against Moscow after its full-scale invasion of Ukraine last year and calling on EU companies to refrain from trade with Russian businesses.

Richard Milne

Well, well, if it isn’t one of the Internet’s favorite Ukraine war hawks caught profiting from the conflict! Publicly shaming companies for doing business with Russia from a position of prominence is certainly a clever way to discourage the competition while covertly engaging in the same types of dealings. This reporting puts Kallas’ consistently tough stance in an entirely different light – one of blatant hypocrisy. Almost as if the more radical the position someone holds on this war, the bigger ulterior motives that person has…

Estonian public broadcaster ERR found that Kallas’ husband Arvo Hallik held a stake in Stark Logistics Genya Savilov/AFP via Getty Images

While Hallik said his firm – Stark Logistics – was simply helping another Estonian company – AS Metaprint – wrap up its activities in Russia, it soon turned out the two companies have the same majority shareholder in Hallik’s business partner Martti Lemendik. Eesti Päevaleht reported on August 23 that Metaprint had sold €17 million worth of goods to Russia between the start of the war and last November.

Prime Minister Kallas said she is not involved in her husband’s business. ERR had previously written about a loan of €350,000 Kallas had given Hallik. In June, Kaja Kallas’ financial interests declaration disclosed that she had lent €350,000 to Novaria Consult, a business owned in full by Hallik. That corporation holds a 24.8 percent stake in Stark Logistics AS. Kallas has said she did not ask her husband what he used the money for.

An interview with Metaprint and Stark Logistics owner Martti Lemendik from August 24 revealed that in terms of sales turnover, between February 24 and August 24, 2023, the company sold €29,817,709-worth of materials on the Russian market.

Marcus Turovski & Kristina Kersa