In brief: Estonia’s interior minister has urged Europe to classify Russian sabotage as state-sponsored terrorism. His warning comes amid cyberattacks affecting nearly 100 supermarkets across Europe and a wider rise in suspected Russian-linked acts of sabotage.
Estonia’s interior minister has called on Europe to stop describing Russian acts of aggression as “hybrid incidents,” arguing that sabotage, cyberattacks and arson should instead be treated as state-sponsored terrorism.
In an interview with the Financial Times (FT), Interior Minister Igor Taro said Russia was constantly attacking Europe below the threshold of conventional military aggression, targeting critical infrastructure and defense-related facilities.
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“Hybrid is too soft [a] word for this,” Taro said. “It’s state-sponsored terrorism.”
He cited an arson attack on Milrem Robotics, an Estonian defense robotics company, in August. Taro said authorities arrested several suspects within hours and that they had initially been recruited by Russia to carry out the attack.
“They hired them to do this,” he said.
Estonia has also been among several European countries affected by a wave of cyberattacks targeting supermarket refrigeration systems. The incidents caused refrigerators to overheat and resulted in millions of euros in damage, according to the FT.
Almost 100 supermarkets in Belgium, Luxembourg, Finland, Ireland and Sweden were affected. The attacks followed a separate incident last month in which around 700 supermarkets in France were hacked, as well as another large-scale cyber incident involving supermarket group Ahold Delhaize.
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The European Commission described the attacks as a threat to Europe’s “food safety.”
Taro said Estonian authorities were investigating the latest incidents and assessing other vulnerabilities that hackers could exploit. However, he said it was not yet clear who was responsible.
“If we get all the data, if we get the evidence, we will do the attribution,” he said, adding that identifying those behind attacks and imposing consequences is essential to preventing further incidents.
The minister estimated that Russia was responsible for around 90% of internal security issues in Estonia, with China accounting for 5% and other actors responsible for the remainder.
He also urged European countries to strengthen their resilience against Russian threats, including by considering a halt to tourist visas for Russian citizens, a measure Estonia has repeatedly advocated.
“Don’t be scared, be prepared. If you’re preparing and doing risk assessment, then you won’t have a catastrophe,” Taro said.
He added that Estonia had invested heavily in cybersecurity, which may have helped limit the damage caused by the supermarket attacks.
Meanwhile, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk warned on Thursday that it was becoming increasingly difficult to distinguish between hybrid warfare, cyberwarfare and provocations along Europe’s borders with Russia.
“According to our sources and those of our allies, Russia’s threat will continue to grow and we can expect an escalation,” Tusk said. “Of course, the first targets are the Baltic states and Poland.”
A second wave of cyberattacks targeting supermarket refrigeration systems hit more than 100 stores across Europe on Nov. 2.
Hackers remotely raised temperatures in refrigerators and freezers to around 50°C (122°F), forcing retailers to discard spoiled food. Stores in Belgium, Estonia, Ireland, Luxembourg and Sweden were affected, as were at least 17 businesses in the Netherlands, the Associated Press and Reuters reported.
Investigators have not identified those responsible, and no group has claimed responsibility.
The incidents have heightened concerns about possible sabotage of Europe’s critical infrastructure. EU Agriculture Commissioner Christophe Hansen described the attacks as a deliberate attempt to disrupt food supply chains and undermine consumer confidence.
A cybersecurity researcher told Reuters that the absence of ransom demands suggested sabotage rather than financial gain, although the perpetrators’ identities remain unknown.
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