COPENHAGEN, Denmark — Estonia’s strongly pro-Ukrainian Prime Minister, Kaja Kallas, got here below growing stress Friday to resign, after Estonian media revealed her husband’s function in an organization that not directly did enterprise in Russia after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine final yr.

Kallas, 46, one among Europe’s most outspoken supporters of Ukraine, had urged all EU corporations to cease doing enterprise with Russia after the battle in Ukraine started in February 2022.

Her husband, Arvo Hallik, mentioned Friday he would promote his 25% stake in Stark Logistics, a trucking firm that labored with an Estonian firm concerned in Russia. He additionally mentioned he would resign as the corporate’s chief monetary officer and step down from the board.

The opposition has urged Kallas to resign, whereas members of the center-right, three-party coalition authorities have been calling for extra solutions relating to Hallik‘s actions.

“We believed that we were doing the right thing, helping the right people and saving a good Estonian company, otherwise we could not have done it,” Hallik wrote in a press release, relayed by Estonian public broadcaster ERR. Hallik insisted his spouse “was not aware of my business activities.”

Stark Logistics, a trucking firm, has continued to work with an organization that operated in Russia.

However, KAPO, the Estonian inside safety service, confirmed to ERR that corporations associated to the prime minister’s husband had not violated sanctions.

Hallik defended his spouse’s mortgage of 350,000 euros ($377,000) to his holding firm, which owns the stake in Stark.

“My company used this and the remaining capital to make various financial investments -– but the substance of these investments has never been the subject of any discussion between us. During the summer the loan was repaid,” he mentioned.

According to ERR, Hallik insisted that he has at all times acted inside the regulation throughout his 13 years with the corporate.

The opposition Center Party group, historically favored by Estonia’s sizable ethnic-Russian minority, was contemplating a no-confidence movement in opposition to Kallas, the Baltic News Service reported.

Party chairman Tanel Kiik mentioned the ”scandal has severely broken the repute of the Estonian state,” in keeping with BNS.

President Alar Karis, whose Social Democrats are the junior companion within the coalition, additionally urged her to clarify the scenario.

Kallas, who leads the pro-business, center-right Reform Party, grew to become Estonia‘s prime minister in January 2021. She gained reelection in March with greater than 31% of the vote, her standing enhanced by her worldwide appeals to impose sanctions on Moscow.

Estonia, which shares a 300-kilometer border with Russia, endured 5 a long time of occupation by the Soviet Union and has been a powerful advocate inside the EU for sanctions on Russia.

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