Andrei Vesterinen has gone from being a war veteran in Afghanistan and a leader of the anti-mask movement during the pandemic to a self-proclaimed defender of the “rights of Russian people” in Estonia, appearing on Russian propaganda channels.
Decorated war veteran
Vesterinen became known in Estonian society at the age of 23 in the late 2000s. After completing his mandatory military service in Estonia in 2003, he decided to pursue a military career and signed a contract with the Defence Forces in 2007. He notes that at the time, he was in a difficult phase of his life and decided to make a radical change.
In May 2008, he was deployed to Afghanistan with the Estonian infantry company Estcoy-6. In June, he was severely injured by a landmine, losing a leg. After returning home, he underwent a long rehabilitation process, first in the United Kingdom, then in Estonia. Upon his return from the British hospital, Vesterinen was welcomed in the VIP lounge of Tallinn Airport together with his parents, and all major Estonian media outlets published touching stories about the Russian-speaking young man who chose to serve in the Estonian Defence Forces and paid a high price for it. As compensation for his injury, Andrei received approximately 280,000 kroons from the state (about 18,000 euros in today’s value).
Despite his serious injury, Vesterinen told journalists that he wanted to continue serving in the army and return to Afghanistan. President Toomas Hendrik Ilves awarded him the Order of the Cross of the Eagle with swords, which he later wore with pride at public events and during media appearances. At the time, Estonian media actively supported the mission in Afghanistan and sought to convince the broader public of its importance. Russian-speaking young men who served side by side with Estonians in foreign missions were portrayed as heroic figures, and Andrei Vesterinen became one of them.
Russian boys have no place in the Estonian army
Although Vesterinen gained both financial and social capital from his service in Afghanistan, he chose to use it differently, by turning against the heroic image the media had built around him in 2008–2009. After earning a law degree from the Nord Academy (later the Law Institute of Tallinn University), he began positioning himself as a “savior” of Russian-speaking youth from compulsory service in the Estonian Defense Forces. He founded the company ArmyLaw OÜ, which helped conscripts avoid military service. Vesterinen exploited loopholes in the Estonian legal system—so-called JOKK (“legally correct but morally questionable”) schemes—to help clients evade conscription.
“We don’t force anyone to swallow nails, shoot themselves in the foot, or pretend to be mentally unstable. We apply a well-developed algorithm of actions that most effectively achieves the goal. As a result, the Defence Resources Agency simply forgets about our clients.”
— This was the message once posted on the website of ArmyLaw OÜ, which is no longer active.
At the same time, Vesterinen began shaping an informational narrative to justify why Russian-speaking young men should not serve in the Estonian army. To that end, he created social media pages for ArmyLaw OÜ, where he actively promoted services aimed at helping conscripts avoid military service.
Vesterinen’s activities drew the attention of state authorities in 2017: the Defence Resources Agency called on the Consumer Protection Board to fine the company ArmyLaw OÜ, arguing that its online advertising violated the Advertising Act, encouraged illegal actions, and justified unlawful behavior. A supervisory procedure was initiated, which ultimately resulted in the company adding additional disclaimers to the content of its advertisements. In 2019, Vesterinen was summoned again by the agency, but no decisive action was taken against him.
Vesterinen maintained that he was acting within the bounds of the law. However, the Central Criminal Police determined that his services involved submitting false information and forging documents. In May 2023, he was officially charged, and earlier this year, the Prosecutor’s Office forwarded his case to court.
Campaign against vaccination and quarantine
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Andrei Vesterinen emerged as a fierce opponent of vaccination, mask-wearing in public places, and strict quarantine measures. He was initially suspected of assaulting PERH chief physician Peep Talving, but the suspicion was later dropped.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Russian intelligence and propaganda networks actively exploited conspiracy theorists and anti-vaccine, anti-mask activists to sow discord and destabilize Western societies. Andrei Vesterinen seized the moment by frequently appearing in Estonian media and expanding his social media presence.
Pro-Kremlin channels circulated disinformation claiming, for example, that the virus was a U.S.-engineered bioweapon or a side effect of 5G technology or that vaccines led to infertility and genetic mutations. At the same time, Russia’s own vaccine, Sputnik V, was heavily promoted, while trust in Western science and institutions was systematically undermined.
Disinformation campaigns on social media, fringe “free speech” platforms, and select media outlets weren’t just about spreading falsehoods, they aimed to deepen social rifts. The goal was to incite protests, undermine trust in institutions, and push the narrative that citizens’ rights were being violated. Andrei Vesterinen’s actions during this period fit squarely into that strategy. He used social media to launch attacks against medical professionals, most notably spearheading an online harassment campaign against virology professor Irja Lutsar.
In addition, Vesterinen organized the “Right to Breathe Freely” march in Tallinn in November 2020, where he called on his supporters to “push back hard against the government’s decisions.”
The descendants of fascists hate the descendants of liberators
Andrei Vesterinen has been an outspoken supporter of Kremlin-aligned narratives about Estonia across multiple platforms. He drew public attention in 2016 by taking part in the so-called “Peace March” (Rahumarss) in Tallinn, which followed Russia’s occupation of Crimea and invasion of eastern Ukraine. Organized by pro-Kremlin groups, the march called for the withdrawal of NATO troops from Estonia. Vesterinen became one of the event’s key figures, appearing alongside Kremlin loyalists Allan Hants and Sergei Tsaulin, who was later deported to Russia in 2023. During the event, Vesterinen declared that Estonia was “being turned into a military training ground for America’s interests.”
“It feels like we’re all locked in an asylum, being told that the more we repeat ‘Russia is the aggressor, Russia is the enemy, Russia is going to attack us,’ the faster we’ll be cured,” he said at the rally. “But we’re not insane—we understand perfectly well that what we want is peace.”
Вестеринен укоренял среди русскоязычного населения Эстонии мысль, что в Эстонии унижают русских людей по национальному признаку: так, в своей статье от 2016 года, опубликованной на портале sport.prosvet.ee он писал: «С момента независимости Эстонии для русскоязычных жителей страны были созданы ряд препятствий и барьеров – языковые требования, безгражданство, вид на жительство, приватизация и т.д. Теперь добрались до образования, до монументов, нас открыто оскорбляют и называют оккупантами. Нашу страну Эстонию, в которой русские жили испокон веков, продали американцам».
Vesterinen sought to instill the belief among Estonia’s Russian-speaking population that Russians are discriminated against on the basis of ethnicity. In a 2016 article published on the portal sport.prosvet.ee, he wrote:
“Since Estonia’s independence, a number of obstacles and barriers have been created for Russian-speaking residents—language requirements, statelessness, residence permits, privatization, etc. Now they’ve moved on to education and to monuments; we are openly insulted and called occupiers. Our country, Estonia, a land where Russians have lived for centuries, has been sold to the Americans.”
In the same article, he claims that the descendants of Estonians who served in the SS and fought on the side of the fascists now hate the victors—the descendants of Red Army soldiers—and are continuing the feud of their ancestors. He draws a contrast between the “heirs of fascists” and the “heirs of the victors,” emphasizing that it was the Soviet Army that defeated Nazism and that the Estonian nation survived thanks to the sacrifice of the Soviet people, despite Stalin’s repressions.
“The fascists’ attempts to destroy us lie in constant hidden and open discrimination, in their fierce desire to eliminate Russian-language education in Estonia, in their efforts to humiliate us, Russian speakers, and in their continual display of supposed superiority over us,” he writes.
Vesterinen continues to promote these same narratives in Estonian society to this day. His statements have been widely amplified by Russian propaganda outlets such as Sputnik, Baltnews, Baltija, and the First Baltic Channel. He has also shared his views in the Russian-language newspaper Stolitsa, published by the Centre Party.
To be continued…
