Estonia's counterintelligence service has recently warned that sabotage operations orchestrated by Russian special services have reached a new and dangerous phase in Europe, with targets no longer being purely symbolic. Talking Europe sits down with the country's foreign minister, Margus Tsahkna, to discuss the security situation in Estonia and the European Union in general. Speaking of undercover operations against Estonia attributed to Russian special services, Tsahkna says: "We have witnessed terrorist attacks, sabotage attacks, against the defence industry companies.
We just attributed, three weeks ago, one serious attack against our defence industry company organised by the Russian secret services. We caught these three guys. We see an increase in the number of these attacks.
But we also see that they are not against the Baltic States as much as against Europe as a whole. We (in the Baltics) are not at the top of this list. Russia is increasing the pressure on Europe.
This is about terror attacks, sabotage attacks, cyberattacks, and any kind of disinformation to divide our unity and to divide our societies as well." Tsahkna distinguishes between this hybrid war and Russia’s actual military capabilities, which he implies have been degraded by its involvement in Ukraine. "When I served as a defence minister in 2016-2017, we had permanently 120,000 Russian troops on the other side of our borders, very close, ready to go within 48 hours. These troops were literally sent to Ukraine; they are not existing anymore.
Tsahkna goes on: "We know exactly what to do on the military level. Actually, French troops are located in Estonia. They are 100 percent integrated with our troops.
We have very solid NATO regional defence plans. So this is not the main concern. The main concern now is to keep all of us in Europe united.
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