Margo Palloson, head of the ISS, known in Estonia as Kapo, noted Russia's focus has shifted to defense industry companies,

The government announced Tuesday it had found the August 15 arson attack on the Milrem Robotics building in Tallinn was sabotage ordered by Russian special services.

Palloson told "Aktuaalne kaamera" this strategy aims to prevent military aid from reaching Ukraine – Milrems' THeMIS unmanned ground vehicle has been deployed to Ukraine – adding that the threat level remains high.

Are we talking about dozens of Russian attack or sabotage attempts that the ISS has managed to prevent in Estonia in one month?

I won't give an exact figure, but there are quite a significant number of them. Some of these attacks are still at preparation phase. Each attack is preceded by mapping and documenting the object. As early as these phases, if we see that individuals are coming to Estonia who are preparing for an attack, we immediately intervene in their activities. There are individuals who we have detained, deported from Estonia, or handed over to Ukraine, for instance. We use those measures that we have to hand.

So Russia's actions are still highly systematic, and not opportunistic?

Russia's actions across Europe are clearly systematic. There has certainly been a change there; while previously Russia tried to carry out more attacks against symbolic objects — we also had 10 previous attacks aimed at symbolic targets — now we are seeing the emphasis is on defense industry companies to prevent military aid from reaching Ukraine.

Did Russia's activities get significantly more active at some point? Has there been a surge?

I would instead say the level has in fact been high all the time, for the last three years. Perhaps the threat level for attacks has changed just because we are seeing more and more incidents where explosives are used. In Leipzig, we already saw a type of model where explosives were deployed from a drone. We hope that this will not get to be a frequent reality in Europe.

You mentioned that defense companies are under special focus. Does this mean that whereas cyberattacks predominated before, now it is acts of sabotage which are more acute?

Absolutely. There are currently defense industry companies in Estonia which are actual targets of attack. We highly recommend that all defense industry companies, especially those that supply anything to Ukraine, boost their cyber defense measures.

The perpetrators and henchmen you have already caught or are under surveillance — who are they? Are they ideological Putinists, or merely people from the bottom stratum in financial difficulty, or are they all of these: Professionals and complete scumbags alike?

The vast majority are purely financially motivated. It seems easy to commit acts of vandalism or set fire to an object, for money. Where they come from, these are very different segments. There are foreigners — for example, people from Latvia, Russia and Moldova have committed attacks in Estonia. We know that Russia has also tried to use people from Africa and Latin America. Essentially, anyone who enters the Schengen area can be a potential perpetrator of an attack.

So the threat level stays high?

The threat level is high and Russia may succeed with some isolated attacks. However, the ISS, the other Estonian security structures, and the Estonian state are strong enough. We can handle it, and Estonia is a safe country.

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