Estonia calls on the EU to severely punish saboteurs: Russia does as much as we allow it

The Estonian internal security agency KAPO calls on European partners to accelerate actions to more decisively punish saboteurs acting on behalf of Russia, the Financial Times (FT) reported.

“Russia and its special services do as much as we allow them,” admitted Harry Puusepp, a representative of KAPO, in an interview with “FT”. “We can resist their attempts, but we cannot stop them completely. (…) However, we can make the implementation of these plans as difficult and as expensive as possible,” Puusepp emphasized.

He added that Tallinn has “confirmed intelligence” that harsh prison sentences discourage cooperation with Moscow. In the opinion of the FT's interlocutor, such an approach would be a “good solution” for other countries.

Tallinn demands decisive action

The daily recalled that Europe has been struggling for two years with a hybrid war waged by Russia, among others. on social networks. As noted, the Kremlin's special services have recruited hundreds of European citizens and refugees to operate on the Internet, often for small remuneration, in order to spread disinformation and support espionage operations.

This campaign caused a wave of concern among European governments, which began to consider appropriate responses to these new challenges. At the same time, although intelligence chiefs publicly raise alarms about the scale of the threat, their positions on how to counteract it differ, the FT added.

Poland and Estonia in the vanguard, the West prefers to “observe”

Estonia itself has faced such incidents several times. This country and Poland are among the most determined in pursuing saboteurs – we read in the British daily. Other governments, however, remain more ambiguous in their reactions, fearing an escalation of tensions in relations with Moscow, the newspaper admitted.

Criminal proceedings involving such cases are not common practice in the activities of many Western intelligence agencies. They usually adopt a “watch and monitor” strategy, noted the FT.

While European countries lack a coherent and consistent response, the number of Russian-backed attacks is increasing. According to Puusepp, this is due to the fact that Moscow treats Europe as “one area of ​​​​activity,” the FT reported. (PAP)

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