The ISS published its annual report on Monday, in which the agency said it caught a record 16 collaborators. Palloson said this is due to Russia's increased activity and Estonia's improved counterintelligence capabilities.

"On the one hand, Russia's intelligence pressure on Estonia is constantly high. Russia has three intelligence services, all of which have intelligence-gathering tasks. They have to fulfill plans, gather information and recruit agents, and they are all trying to carry out their tasks. The ISS's counterintelligence capability is certainly also improving every year and reaching a higher level. We have the skills and capabilities to identify them quickly. Above all, all of our work is aimed at prevention, so that there are no more of them. We are creating conditions in which it is not possible to approach or recruit Estonian people — that is the main effort," Palloson told Tuesday's "Esimene stuudio".

The director general reiterated that people should not travel to Russia.

"If we look at the intelligence cases that have taken place in Estonia — there are more than 40 convicted Russian agents — then in the vast majority of cases they were approached and recruited on the territory of the Russian Federation. Their handling also takes place from there. All the bad things happen on Russian territory," Palloson said.

Expelled to save resources

He said 18 people were expelled from Estonia last year.

"These included groups such as the clergy of the Russian Orthodox Church, who posed a threat to Estonia's security, and Russian far-right extremists. Then there were also agents of the Federal Security Service (FSB) and the Main Directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation (GRU), whom we caught at a very early stage. They had not yet been able to create any security threat to Estonia, and to save investigative resources, we simply expelled these people. Some were sent to Russia, and a couple were handed over to Ukrainian security structures, because they had also been gathering information about Ukraine," the ISS director general said.

During the past year, a woman in her sixties was also recruited as an agent. Acting on behalf of the FSB, she gathered information depending on what access she had at any given time. The woman worked at Värska Sanatorium and tried to gather information there about the sanatorium's clients.

"Each agent is managed according to their capabilities. There is no point in sending that same woman to gather information about the Ministry of Defense, because she has no access there. However, she can go and visually observe other things. One of her areas was everything related to border infrastructure and border guard officers. When she operated in South Estonia, she was also able to see Estonian Defense Forces convoys and exercises," Palloson said.

He stressed that the ISS tries to identify all agents at an early stage and remove them from society, because Russian services develop their agents by giving them increasingly complicated tasks.

"There were also a couple of agents whom we arrested last year who had received fairly substantial training and would have become quite dangerous to Estonian society in the future," Palloson said.

No need to close the eastern border

However, the director general believes the eastern border does not need to be completely closed.

"We strongly support the fact that the border was closed during nighttime hours, meaning it is not possible to cross the border then. At the moment, this is an entirely sufficient measure to ensure security. Everything still starts with awareness and the decision not to go to Russia. In theory, the border can be closed, but people can still go through Latvia or fly through Istanbul. These intelligence threats will remain if people want to go to Russia. Above all, the decision should be made not to go there, including by ordinary people," Palloson said.

"Even the 16 agents whom we arrested last year were actually ordinary people. They were not connected to state structures and had no ties there. They were completely ordinary people whom the Russian service tried to develop further," he said.

The director general also pointed out that Russian influence operations can increasingly be encountered on social media.

"One tool that we can increasingly use is the European Union's Digital Services Act. This creates an opportunity to remove hostile information, influence operations and propaganda. This regulation is a relatively new thing, but within the Estonian state we are increasingly looking for ways to use it to remove hostile propaganda. This has already been done," Palloson said.

It is still important to raise awareness in society so that every person can recognize propaganda.

"We can shut down one or another social media account, but new accounts spring up like mushrooms after rain. Everything starts with people's awareness. The danger is not that Russia spreads propaganda and that it is available, but whether Estonian people consume it, are influenced by it and also share it," Palloson said.

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