On February 20, Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas announced the thwarting of a ‘hybrid operation’ conducted by Russian security services within Estonia’s borders. This operation, as reported by the Estonian news outlet ERR, involved the detention of 10 individuals linked to various offenses, notably the vandalism of Estonian Interior Minister Lauri Laanemets’s vehicle in late 2023, an act believed to be a deliberate attack.

Margo Palloson, the director of the Estonian Internal Security Service (ISS), highlighted that the majority of those detained had prior criminal records.

The ISS posited that these acts were orchestrated at the behest of Russian special services, aiming to instill fear and escalate tensions within Estonian society.