Russia will try to meddle in EU elections, say Estonian experts
Security experts believe that Russia will attempt to interfere in the European Parliament elections coming up in a couple of months. According to International Center for Defense and Security (ICDS) Director Indrek Kannik, Russia is mainly interested in politicians from the bigger EU member states.
According to Kannik, Russia would try with its meddling to support the political forces that might stand closest to them – meaning extreme right- and extreme left-wing forces.
"One system is that they'll try to create networks that publicly support these forces," he explained. "And another thing they may certainly try to do is compromise their opponents – the ones that Russia doesn't see as very sympathetic to them."
Kannik stressed that Russian powers are most interested in the elections of the EU's bigger member states.
Even so, security expert Rainer Saks says that attention to Estonia – such as in the form of some kind of cyberattack – cannot be entirely ruled out either.
"A lot also depends on what the political situation in Estonia will shape up to be," Saks said. "If you can imagine, for example, that the Russia issue is brought very seriously to the fore in a European Parliament election campaign here, and various moves against Russia start being proposed, then Russia can react to that as well. So it's kind of a situation where I don't think they're specifically planning some sort of major attack, but this is all still speculation."
Russia's efforts to influence European public opinion aren't just limited to elections, however. The Czech minister of transport recently told the Financial Times that Russia has made "thousands" of attempts to interfere with the operations of European rail networks, thus also destabilizing the EU.
"Russia's desire is to stabilize the West, all Western countries, to the maximum extent possible, as it sees them collectively as the enemy, and the more problems they have there, the better, from Russia's perspective," Kannik explained.
"And furthermore, they hope that if they can cause inconveniences in Western countries, then that will turn public opinion against the war and against supporting Ukraine," he continued. "I believe this is where the Russians are mistaken."
According to the ICDS director, what they don't understand in Russia is that in Western society, resistance has grown stronger.
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Editor: Merili Nael, Aili Vahtla
