Estonia’s internal security services (ISS) announced today that they have arrested ten people since December on suspicion of acting “on behalf of a Russian special service”.

According to an ISS statement, information collected as part of a criminal proceeding indicates that “the Russian special service coordinated a hybrid operation against the security of the Republic of Estonia“, a member country of the EU and NATO.

Estonian investigators suspect the arrested persons, whose identities have not been disclosed, that mainly “they gathered information to prepare attacks“.

The aim of this action could be to “spread fear and create tensions within Estonian society,” the statement said.

Those arrested were encouraged to commit various criminal acts such as breaking the windows of cars belonging to the interior minister and a journalist or even desecrating memorial sites.

According to ISS chief Margo Palosson, some of those arrested were recruited through social networking platforms.

“For years now, Russian special services have been trying in many ways to create tensions in Estonia,” the ISS statement underlines.