The country, which shares a border of more than 300 km with Russia, including 89 on the ground, has seen an increase in cases of sabotage, electronic warfare and espionage, all blamed on Moscow.
Perched on an open ramp at the back of a British Chinook helicopter, the Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas observes the annual Spring Storm military exercises, carried out by troops from Tallinn and its NATO allies. But lately the country is facing other types of war.
Estonia, which shares a border with Russia, has seen a proliferation cases of sabotage, electronic warfare and espionage, all blamed on Moscow.
Since many Russian intelligence agents are already sanctioned, Western officials and experts say the Kremlin is changing tactics and hiring others for hybrid operations, i.e. non-military strategies. including cyberattacks, election interference and disinformation, as well as attacks on President Vladimir Putin’s adversaries.
“We all understand that these hybrid attacks are still very serious,” said Hanno Pevkur, Estonian Defense Minister.
This year, in Estonia, a university professor was arrested for spying for Moscow. A few weeks later 13 other people were also arrested following attacks allegedly organized by Russian military intelligence under diplomatic cover, and flights between Finland and the country’s second city, Tartu, were disrupted by the jamming of GPS signals by the Russians.
In October, a gas pipeline and telecommunications cables were damaged in the Baltic Seaan incident that remains under investigation.
Estonia, champion in the fight against Russian agents
Britain expelled Russia’s defense attaché in May after two Britons were accused of working with Russian intelligence to set fire to a London warehouse.
In April, two German-Russian nationals were arrested and accused of attempting to attack military sites in southern Germany.
“We are also, I think, aware of the intent, of what Russia wants to accomplish. It is about stirring up trouble, dividing us, separating our policy from that of our allies.”said Kusti Salm, permanent secretary of the Estonian Defense Ministry, in an interview with The Associated Press. “And we are constantly making sure that whatever Russia’s intentions are, the effect will be the opposite.”
Estonia carries out large-scale operations against espionage actions, and even makes them public. The country has also arrested the number of Russian agents per capita in the entire European Union since the start of the war.
It is not “not likely” that there are so many agents in Estonia that it is easier to catch them, Salm said, suggesting that other countries could work harder in this area.
Other countries would frustrate the fight against interference… hoping for a return to normal with Moscow
Former Estonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves, in office from 2006 to 2016, said that some countries were not doing more to combat Russian interference because they hoped to do business with Russia again soon.
“People are afraid of decisive action, and the lack of decisive action incentivizes bad actors to keep trying their luck,” added Mr. Ilves, who faced a major cyberattack blamed on Russia in 2007.
Russian officials, he said, “will take their chances until something bad happens, but they won’t pay the consequences, whereas we will.”
This could lead to unintentional deaths and injuries, Estonian officials and security experts say, citing a trend in which Russia outsources attacks to locals, sometimes recruited relatively cheaply from video game platforms. .
It is therefore more difficult to identify links between attacks or to go back to Russia.
Although Russia has been accused of attacks in Europe for decades, Estonian officials and security experts have indicated that it there was no collective mechanism to deal with itAnd call for a more proactive approach from the EU.
