Poisoned in England, a former GRU officer, Sergei Skripal, traveled to Estonia in June 2016, where he held a secret meeting with representatives of local special services. This is reported by The New York Times referring to a high-ranking European official who wished to remain anonymous. According to the source, what exactly was discussed at the talks remained unknown. He added that the British special services helped organize the meeting. The publication emphasizes that people familiar with the situation very sketchily tell about the trip of Skripal to Estonia, noting that the very information about it is very important. At the same time, the newspaper cites the words of former Estonian President Toomas Ilves, who declared that his country had the best counterintelligence in Europe. "We caught as many spies as Germany did," the American edition quotes Ilves. Perhaps the trip of Skripal was connected with the further increase in the effectiveness of Estonian counter-espionage. Earlier media reported that Skripal collaborated not only with British intelligence: in 2012 he secretly traveled to Prague. It is noted that the former colonel of the GRU could not once visit the Czech Republic, as representatives of the Czech special services called information, which was shared with them by Skripal, very valuable. Sergei Skripal and his daughter Julia were poisoned on March 4 in the English city of Salisbury. The case of the Violins provoked a major international scandal, as official London stated that the Russian state was involved in the incident with the Fiddles. Moscow categorically denies this accusation.