The security agency published its annual yearbook on Monday, which gives an overview of Estonia's security environment, highlighting the main threats, trends and developments of the past year.

Sixteen people with links to the Russian security services – both FSB and GRU –were caught last year.

"Since Russian intelligence services cannot operate on Estonian territory, they are looking for other options. They are seeking so-called easier agents who would carry out certain tasks on their behalf. But this record year shows that they are not succeeding. Our officials are very capable and catch them fairly quickly, so there is no need for concern at all," Tuul said.

She explained that social media, as a tool or channel, has changed recruitment methods.

"On social media, they try to find one-off agents who would carry out acts of vandalism, for example, to destroy or deface the Blue Hills (Sinimäed) memorials or do other things."

The Blue Hills is an important memorial site for Estonians as it marks repeated acts of resistance in World War II and before. In 1944, Estonian forces put up fierce resistance against overwhelming Soviet attackers in an attempt to prevent a second Soviet occupation.

The ISS spokesperson said that visiting Russia poses a significant risk, as there are operatives at the borders who profile and screen people on site and may already make recruitment approaches at border crossing points.

According to Tuul, Estonia has made major efforts to curb Russia's toxic influence activities and several propaganda outlets such as Baltnews and Sputnik have been shut down. As a result, Russia's influence operations have shifted more toward social media.

"This is where attempts are made to create false narratives, as we saw over the past year. For example, bomb threats against schools or an alleged attack on Narva. There is absolutely no real support or following for this in Estonia. They may try, but there is no basis or real substance to it," Marta Tuul said.

The yearbook says Russia is increasingly using social media to spread its narratives and propaganda because sanctions placed on the country after it launched the full-scale war in Ukraine have "curtailed" its "hostile activities," including spreading propaganda.

Sixteen agents

Margo Palloson, director general of the Internal Security Service, said at Monday morning's press conference that 16 collaborators were caught last year.

"Pressure to recruit agents remained consistently high last year," he told the media.

"Since the beginning of last year, we have apprehended and thwarted the activities of 16 collaborators of Russian special services. Most of them were agents of the Federal Security Service, some of the GRU. The vast majority were ordinary people who did not work in government institutions and did not have access to sensitive information," he told the media.

"Regarding all 16 Russian agents, it can be said that their activities were disrupted at a relatively early stage. They were not able to cause significant harm to Estonia's security," Palloson added.

This article was updated to add comments from Margo Palloson and clarify the number of people apprehended.

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