It has now emerged that Prime Minister Kaja Kallas has invested loans in her husband Arvo Hallik's business, through which Hallik in turn holds a stake in Stark Logistics, a logistics company that handles freight shipments to Russia.

The main client of this logistics company is Metaprint, a metal packaging manufacturer which has not yet ceased operations in Russia, but has instead supplied millions of euros worth of raw materials from Estonia.

"Since the beginning of the war, we have sold our transport services to the Estonian company on an agreement to help them wind down their Russian operations," Hallik explained, but added that Stark also helped the Estonian company to "finalise previously signed contracts".

Last night, Stark's CEO Kristjan Kraag promised in a written comment to the media that the company would cease Russian shipments in September this year.

Kraag has now revealed to Eesti Päevaleht that Metaprint earned €1.1 million from Russian shipments in 2022, and has earned nearly €475 000 so far this year.

This year, Stark Logistics has earned nearly €475 000 from Metaprint's Russian shipments.

However, Metaprint's Russian partner OOO Aeroprom's latest annual report does not give the impression that the company had any plans to close down until recently. On the contrary, it wanted to expand its activities.

"In 2023, we will work hard to continue production, increase production capacity and grow sales revenue to strengthen the company's financial position," says the report, published in February this year.

In 2021, the plant paid 20 million roubles in taxes in Russia, or about €200 000 in today's currency. Last year's tax information has not been published in Russia, but Aeroprom's turnover in the first year of the war in Ukraine was slightly higher than the year before. It can therefore be assumed that the Russian treasury paid a similar amount of taxes last year.

Aeroprom is owned by Pottala, a limited liability company registered in Estonia and owned by Emeri Lepa. Lepp is the financial director of the same Metaprint. The Russian business is therefore in the name of an employee of Metaprint, not legally in the same group or in the name of Martti Lemendik, the joint shareholder of Metaprint and Stark Logistics.

Aeroprom's annual accounts also show common business interests with other Russian businessmen.

In its Estonian reporting, Pottala describes itself as a micro company with assets of less than EUR 30 000, which is essentially not in business. The fact that the company owns a factory in Russia with an annual turnover of around EUR 20 million is never mentioned.

Emeri Lepp asked for questions in writing over the phone, but did not answer them at the time of publication. Similarly, Martti Lemendik had not answered the questions at the time of publication.

Aeroprom's annual accounts also reflect common business interests with other Russian businessmen. For example, the company has sales contracts with the Russian factory ZMU, whose 11 Russian shareholders include Aeroprom CEO Oleg Elagin, about whom Eesti Päevaleht was unable to find out much. According to ZMU's website, the metal packaging is sold specifically to the Russian market and partners.

The deal went under sanctions
In a press release sent to the public on 23 August, Stark Logistics for some reason mentioned turnover from invoices to Russian companies, and only during the pre-war period, leaving out shipments during the war in Ukraine and shipments to Russia paid for by Metaprint, for example.

As of 25 February 2022, Metaprint has sent 484 shipments to Russia, the last three of which that we can see at the moment bear a Russian customs date of 30 November. The value of the goods, according to customs declarations, is $17 million (€15.6 million). It should be stressed that this information comes from the Trade in Goods database, which only shows data up to 31 November 2022, so presumably the shipments continued after that date, and the total value and volume of goods sent to Russia is actually even higher.

In fact, one product with the commodity code 7210122000 (Белая жесть, or white tin) was shipped in a rush during the war. Between April last year and the end of the year, it was shipped to Russia 60 times more than a year earlier, for a total value of more than four million dollars (€3.7 million).

Metaprint has also imported goods from the Russian factory back to Estonia, mainly wooden euro trays. But not after May 2022.

Metaprint's business in Russia took a big tumble this spring due to sanctions.

Metaprint's latest annual report shows that its business in Russia took a big tumble this spring, not because of its own desire to leave Russia, but because of sanctions.

"On March 27, 2023, a new package of European Union sanctions came into force, which strongly affects Metaprint AS's activities towards Russia. Namely, the sale of aerosol cans and tinplate to Russia is banned," the company said in a report.

These are exactly the products Metaprint has been shipping to its Russian partner. "Turnover to Russia will drop by 70 percent from 27 March," the report said.

The public has also belittled the responsibility and role of Arvo Hallik in the logistics business serving Metaprint. Prime Minister Kallas's story gives the impression that Hallik was not involved in this line of business.

Hallik has an important role to play
"In a business sense, it's Estonia's turnover and he really had no exposure to it. He's a financial manager," Kaja Kallas said at a press conference today, 24 August.

Hallik is indeed the Chief Financial Officer of Stark Logistics. But he is also a 25% shareholder and member of the Supervisory Board since 2010. Metaprint's business with Russia has also been going for almost a decade. Last year, Hallik also became head of Stark Warehousing, an affiliated company of the group. Warehousing will take over the entire warehousing services business of Stark Logistics in 2021.

However, according to Hallik, Russian freight has been discussed in the company since the beginning of the war. "Of course, since the beginning of the war, we have been discussing the issue with our colleagues in the company, whether it is morally right to help an Estonian client company, our majority shareholder, in a very bad situation. So far, we have collectively always found that it is," he said.