TALLINN: Estonian authorities have arrested Edgar Savisaar, long term mayor of the capital Tallinn and leader of the pro-Russian opposition party, on suspicion of taking bribes.Estonian Security Service (ISS) spokeswoman Agnes Suurmets-Ots said that the case had now been transferred to the prosecutors office.

The arrest comes as Estonian politics have been dominated by fears of interference by neighbouring Russia following Moscow’s annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea region. Savisaar’s party draws most of its support from the quarter of Estonia’s 1.3 million population are Russian speakers. About 70 percent of Russian speakers support the party, which signed a 2004 cooperation deal with Putin’s United Russia Party.

But Savisaar lost the trust of many Estonians last year when he continued with his cooperation deal Russia’s annexation of Crimea from Ukraine.