HELSINKI (AP) – Estonian internal security authorities said Tuesday that a coordinated “hybrid operation” by Russian special forces has arrested 10 people on suspicion of sabotage, spreading fear and provoking tensions in the Baltic nation. .
Estonia’s Internal Security Service said suspects detained between December and February included a man believed to have smashed the car window of Interior Minister Lauri Ränemetz and a local journalist in December. .
“Information currently being collected in the criminal proceedings indicates that Russian special forces were coordinating a hybrid operation against the security of the Republic of Estonia involving the detained suspects,” the ministry said. “As far as the Estonian Internal Security Service knows, the aim was to spread fear and create tension in Estonian society.”
Relations between Estonia and neighboring Russia have remained frosty since independence in 1991. As a legacy of the Soviet Union, the country of 1.3 million, now a member of NATO and the European Union, has a sizable ethnic Russian minority.
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State prosecutor Triinu Olef said the suspects were being held pending the outcome of the criminal proceedings.
Security officials said the suspects carried out various roles in Estonia at the direction of their Russian counterparts. Officials said some focused on gathering intelligence, while others planned and carried out attacks.
Estonia’s top security official, Margo Palosson, said some of the suspects believed to have vandalized the undisclosed monument were recruited through social media.
“Due to the ongoing process to verify the allegations and confirm important facts, we are unable to discuss these incidents in further detail,” a security official said.
Moscow has maintained a keen interest in the internal affairs of Estonia and its Baltic neighbors Latvia and Lithuania, particularly the security and military issues since the three countries joined NATO and the European Union in 2004.
