Together with Lithuania, the UK, the Netherlands, Romania, and Finland, Estonia is pressing the bloc to make a decision at next week's Brussels EU summit.

The sanctions regime already covers states violating nuclear and chemical weapons treaties.

"We urgently need to implement a similar regime to address malicious cyber activity," the aforementioned countries wrote to all other member states, in a letter obtained by the Baltic News Service.

Hague attack

"The pace of events has accelerated considerably, in particular over the past year, including events last week. This context makes the introduction of such a regime a pressing priority," the letter explained, referring to Dutch authorities' recent claims that Russia attempted a cyber-attack on the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), based in the Hague.

The OPCW is investigating the Skirpal Novichok poisoning case in March this year, in Salisbury, UK.

In 2007 several Estonian institutions, including the parliament, various banks, ministries, political parties and media outlets experienced cyber attacks thought to have been Kremlin-orchestrated, in the wake of the relocation of the bronze soldier statue in Tallinn.