About Eerik-Niiles Kross
Eerik-Niiles Kross (born 8 September 1967) is an Estonian politician, diplomat, former chief of intelligence and entrepreneur. He is a member of parliament (Riigikogu). During the 1980s, Kross was a prominent figure in the anti-Soviet non-violent resistance movement in Soviet Estonia. After re-independence, in 1991, he joined Estonia's Foreign Ministry. He served as the head of intelligence from 1995 to 2000; and as national security advisor to former President Lennart Meri in 2000 and 2001. Kross represented Estonia as a diplomat in the UK, from 1990 to 1992; then in the US from 1992 to 1995. Internationally, Kross is best known as a security expert, having worked in Iraq as a Senior Director of the Coalition Provisional Authority being responsible for creating the new Iraqi Ministry of Defense and Military Intelligence. He was an advisor to the Government of Georgia during and after its war with Russia in 2008. He coordinated the Georgian information campaign. As an observer of foreign affairs, Kross has published more than 100 articles on Russian foreign policy, NATO and Estonian-Russian relations. Kross is a well known critic of the Russian foreign policy and the Russian head of state, Vladimir Putin. In 2011, Russian authorities accused him of masterminding the 2009 hijacking of the MV Arctic Sea off the coast of Sweden. The Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee in Estonia, rejected this accusation as a fabrication by Russia's FSB. Kross joined the moderate-conservative IRL in November 2011, and was elected to the Party Executive. He served on the Advisory Board to the Ministry of Defense. In October 2014 Kross left the IRL and joined the liberal democratic Estonian Reform Party. At the Parliamentary Elections of 2015 he ran at the Reform Party ticket in the Tallinn 3rd district and won a seat in Parliament after the MEP Urmas Paet did not accept his mandate. Kross has published several books and written scripts for documentary films. He wrote the script for the 2006 documentary, The Blue Hills (Sinimäed), which received the Estonian Cultural Foundation's Film of the Year Award; also, special mention at the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival. Kross is married to the American filmmaker Mary Jordan. In June 1988, Kross was one of organizers of the First Youth Forum gathering all pro-independence youth organizations of the country. Kross was the first post-war chairman of Estonian Students Society.
Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.