ListNook

No-Mushroom5934 Apr 14, 2026 +1284

russia has essentially been evicted from the professional intelligence game in the baltics, so they’ve pivoted to the gig economy of espionage. they went from high-stakes KGB tradecraft to sliding into the DMs of ordinary civilians to pay them for vandalism and fake bomb threats. estonia is dismantling them with the efficiency of a world class IT dept. once again, the smallest neighbor is providing the biggest masterclass for the rest of NATO.

1284

Dollar_Admiral Apr 14, 2026 +180

E-Stonia putting in work.

180

DigitalMountainMonk Apr 14, 2026 +116

Ehhhh... They have not been evicted. Their public arm has been evicted(mostly). Their silent arms are still neck deep in the EU in general. Though it is being seriously weakened as the Russian economy consumes itself. The KGB has always used proxies when possible.

116

Under_Over_Thinker Apr 14, 2026 +98

The comment is not about the EU. It’s about the Baltics, Estonia in particular. There is a big difference between Orban’s Hungary and countries with a real national security agenda.

98

DigitalMountainMonk Apr 14, 2026 -57

You are aware that the Baltics are part of the EU yes? You are then also aware that Russian spies have been a thorn in the entire EU for decades yes? I struggle to find your point. You think everyone but Estonia isn't trying to evict Russian spies from their respective Russian embassies?

-57

Assmodean Apr 14, 2026 +49

They are saying that Estonia is doing better than the rest of the EU at weeding out spies. Your counterpoint that spies are still a major problem in the EU does not really negate the first point.

49

DigitalMountainMonk Apr 14, 2026 -24

Fair. I guess from my point of view being closer to this topic I view it as a team effort. Estonia isn't alone in this and I can damn sure promise you eliminating these assets didn't happen on their work alone. Not eliminating Russian assets in German or French structures also isn't always a bad thing so I don't view one group moving faster than another as always better. To me they are all a focus of a much greater problem that we are all working on solving. Political spying is never a one team job. I can now see more where over thinker was coming from though so thank you for the clarification.

-24

ieatthosedownvotes Apr 14, 2026 +2

I kind of don't understand allowing enemies to even have embassies in your nation. It may have made sense back in the day before instantaneous communication, but to me, the risk of hosting an adversarial foothold in your country outweighs any benefit.

2

P1zzaBag3ls Apr 14, 2026 +5

There are a few reasons. Allowing declared agents of foreign governments may mean fewer undeclared agents running around in secret. Having official channels may keep relations from getting worse. (That's a lot of "mays", I know.) There are also just a lot of mundane tasks that somebody somewhere has to do... housekeeping, basically.

5

suspectable-buggy Apr 14, 2026 -40

i mean, FSB have used this recruitment tactics for years now. Anyone who is remotely familiar with russian social networks would know that. But estonian master world class IT dept just recently got a memo. So yes, it deserved rights now to mog everyone else in the NATO xddd edit: Also calling kids russian spies because they wanted to make some easy money by paiting graffitis on the walls is crazy work ngl

-40

someocculthand Apr 14, 2026 +35

What's your problem anyway? European countries countering russian hybrid tactics is.., bad? Besides, it's not like it's just kids painting graffiti. Arson, for example, is a pretty big deal.

35

wind543 Apr 14, 2026 +36

> What's your problem anyway? He's a Russian living in Estonia. No further information needed.

36

suspectable-buggy Apr 14, 2026 -30

its not bad. Its a little bit too late. Like 10-15 years late. And somehow making article out of it and posting this on the internet now is just for clicks and to further spread false narrative that somehow EU doing a good job at fighting hybrid informational warfare. Which it pretty much lost already quite a while ago

-30

Under_Over_Thinker Apr 14, 2026 +14

That’s a bit fatalistic. If something could’ve been done 10 years ago, it’s not a reason not to do it now. It’s a great time to eradicate Russian spy networks. Also, let’s not overestimate Russians either. The fear of Russians is much stronger than the Russians actually are. Ukrainian armed forces have proven that over and over again.

14

suspectable-buggy Apr 14, 2026 -2

i think war in Ukraine pretty much proved there is nothing to fear about russians. But whatever. They only fear is now government of Russia is trying to induce is into their of citizen so they would stay in line and avoid any kind of revolutions xd. But listnook average user know best

-2

Maelarion Apr 14, 2026 +5

There are degrees of being a spy. Much the same way a military cook and a Tier 1 Delta Force operator are both 'soldiers'.

5

suspectable-buggy Apr 14, 2026 -2

ah so, exploiting poorest layers of the society because they just trying to make a living somehow is now soldiers. Copy that

-2

Maelarion Apr 14, 2026 +6

Strawman argument, comment invalid.

6

flriverlivin Apr 14, 2026 +172

Good for Estonia. Probably nice to ‘sweep the porch’ of such people.

172

Millia_ Apr 14, 2026 +68

Common Estonia W, love to see it

68

totallyRebb Apr 14, 2026 +225

Russia works like literal cancer.

225

Famous_Economist_211 Apr 14, 2026 +117

Been saying russia is a tumor in world. Just extracting huge amounts of natural resources and produces nothing but problems for the rest of the world. Remarkable civilisation in every negative way

117

james7132 Apr 14, 2026 +28

Time for some chemotherapy.

28

Illustrious_Cap2327 Apr 14, 2026 +4

did Russia compensate for the Chernobyl affected victims though?

4

cstriker421 Apr 14, 2026 +5

Mayhaps a second round of shock therapy.

5

Bagel_Sparrow6 Apr 14, 2026 -1

Just another cancer like the United States

-1

AdventurousVast6510 Apr 15, 2026 +4

the u.s contributes to sci & tech more than any other countries

4

josss5 Apr 15, 2026

but they ised it to destroy the work and kill people

0

JoshuaZ1 Apr 15, 2026 -1

Historically this wasn't the case. What is true is that Russia right now is this way, and there was a decent chance that it didn't end up this way if the last few decades had gone differently. The current Russian government is of course absolutely awful.

-1

GabeGabou Apr 15, 2026 +9

When was it not this way?

9

JoshuaZ1 Apr 15, 2026 -1

The mid 1990s Russia has problems, but it wasn't remotely this bad. In much of the 19th century and 18th centuries Russia was just one more big empire (where by most modern standards everyone was awful).

-1

zgollum Apr 15, 2026 +5

ahhaha, Transnistria, Abkhazia, South Ossetia, Tajikistan and Chechnya would like a word with you

5

JoshuaZ1 Apr 15, 2026 -1

The scale of all of these, even Chechnya (which was devastating and awful) isn't the same scale in terms of aggression. Nor in the 1990s was Russia engaging in the sort of large scale espionage and sabotage that the original article is about.

-1

VariousBodybuilder62 Apr 15, 2026 +2

Russia in the 1990s was still licking their wounds after the collapse of the CCCP in the early 90s. That's not really saying much.

2

JoshuaZ1 Apr 15, 2026 +1

That's a valid point. It may be that there were larger cultural and government issues still and they just didn't have the resources to act on them. I don't think though that's all of it. Neither Gorbachev and Yeltsin acted remotely like Putin on many of these issues. Was that just due to everything else going on? I'm not sure. At a minimum, Gorbachev could have tried to really violently hang on to Soviet satellite states and did not do so. I have trouble seeing Putin making that decision. Who leaders are matters.

1

Space_Sweetness Apr 14, 2026 +14

True. Energy is used to suppress speech, terrorise communities and individuals, attack other countries, manipulate and sow division in other countries. A healthy country invests in its population, let everyone take part, grow innovation and hope Putin’s Russia is just darkness and destruction

14

bigdipboy Apr 14, 2026 +63

If America did that then the Republican party would collapse

63

Ragnarawr Apr 14, 2026 +18

If America swept its porch of all compromised, or active agents of other nations, there’d be very few politicians left standing.

18

TazBaz Apr 14, 2026 +3

Add Israeli agents and the upper levels of politics would be mostly empty.

3

Eradiani Apr 14, 2026

I'm sure there would be a number of democrats on that list as well. remember russia's propaganda pushes often times do a both sides type of thing to sow discord in western countries. It's hard to focus on russia being the bad guy when you're in-fighting

0

Black_Moons Apr 14, 2026 +14

Cool get rid of em all. If the only person left in the US government was bernie sanders the world would be a much better place.

14

Eradiani Apr 15, 2026 +2

There are a few others that I'd also like to see stick around but I agree. if you looked through any of my post history you'd probably already figure out that I'm for getting rid of most of both sides and starting a real progressive movement in the country

2

[deleted] Apr 15, 2026 -2

[deleted]

-2

[deleted] Apr 15, 2026

[removed]

0

Black_Moons Apr 15, 2026 +1

Yea, always EXACTLY enough who are retiring and cross party lines to make sure next to 0 progress is ever made.

1

bigdipboy Apr 14, 2026 +4

It’s obvious which side Putin prefers to have in power. Now, why does our enemy want the Republican Party in charge?

4

Eradiani Apr 15, 2026 +3

no doubt, because Putin finds the faster path to destroying america as a world power is easier through republicans. I'm just saying if you look at most of russia's troll farms they play both sides of an issue purely to promote infighting https://www.theguardian.com/society/2018/aug/23/russian-trolls-spread-vaccine-misinformation-on-twitter The goal isn't to align beliefs towards one side or the other, it's to promote anger at each other. So while yes I feel that probably most of the republican party is taking money from the kremlin at this point you have to weed out a good chunk of both sides of our political landscape because many are getting paid by AIPAC and others. After all there's always just enough democrats to ensure real progress never happens even when they have the super majority.

3

bigdipboy Apr 16, 2026 +1

That’s because people aren’t electing enough Democrats. When Democrats have enough power, they fix things. They can’t do that with a one vote majority that can be blocked by the filibuster.

1

Eradiani Apr 16, 2026 +1

well it's part that but also part, maps are gerrymandered to hell, and the US government is structured to allow minority rule. you'd have to have over 60 votes without detractors like sinema/manchin/leiberman/etc throughout history. you need over two thirds without those things to make constitutional changes. I would love to see the republican base shrink to such a small amount that these things could actually happen but I just don't see it happening despite how messed up this presidency has been. you absolutely know these same people will forget about it in 4 years after a democrat comes in and barely makes any changes because most of them will block and stall, and not get things done

1

Delicious_Injury9444 Apr 14, 2026 +103

Cool. Now do the US.

103

violentglitter666 Apr 14, 2026 +25

The entire government is infested with them. It’s a real problem. I don’t have any faith that they will be ousted anytime soon.

25

EspritLibre_404 Apr 14, 2026 +34

What’s the point of stressing if half the Capitol ends up being Russian agents?

34

Haru1st Apr 14, 2026 +25

You get to call out MAGAs for choosing to be ruled by a foreign nation.

25

bloomdecay Apr 14, 2026 +10

They'd probably just say that Russia is the true United States or something equally stupid and insane.

10

heyoneblueveloplease Apr 15, 2026 +2

You can do it now with Israel lmao.

2

AlisaofallTimes Apr 14, 2026 +11

So, what's the record number?

11

Shiroyami Apr 14, 2026 +15

16 agents this time around

15

thracia Apr 14, 2026 +11

The biggest country in the world shows us how it fights with one of the smallest countries 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 That is how much power Russia has.

11

plaes Apr 14, 2026 +14

Full book (in Estonian) downloadable from here: [https://kapo.ee/sites/default/files/content\_page\_attachments/aastaraamat-2025-2026.pdf](https://kapo.ee/sites/default/files/content_page_attachments/aastaraamat-2025-2026.pdf)

14

_llille Apr 14, 2026 +12

In English: [https://kapo.ee/sites/default/files/content\_page\_attachments/annual-review-2025-2026.pdf](https://kapo.ee/sites/default/files/content_page_attachments/annual-review-2025-2026.pdf)

12

Space_Sweetness Apr 14, 2026 +6

Let’s make this an international competition

6

HasGreatVocabulary Apr 14, 2026 +7

>At least nine individuals were identified as “agents” in the intelligence service’s latest annual [report](https://kapo.ee/sites/default/files/content_page_attachments/annual-review-2025-2026.pdf), and the residency permits of several clergy members with ties to the Russian Orthodox Church were revoked on security grounds. The total number of people detected to be working for the Kremlin, or detained or expelled for promoting Russia’s agenda, was not disclosed. I visited the main russian orthodox church in Tallinn (capital of estonia) just over 10 years ago and I swear it had a really weird unwelcoming vibe, like I felt it was a cover for something but I thought maybe I was biased. the locals also talked about russians moving there and provoking political tensions and starting fights over EU membership and language

7

compuwiza1 Apr 14, 2026 +12

Will they be estoned?

12

Deep-Assignment4124 Apr 14, 2026 +2

What was the old record?

2

MeanSatisfaction1772 Apr 15, 2026 +2

this is teh kind of stuff that actually matters for national security and yet we've had administrations that seem way more focused on maintaining cozy relationships with moscow than building up defenses against it, meanwhile people who actually served are struggling just to get basic medical care covered

2

Small_Lengthiness850 Apr 15, 2026 +2

the fact that estonia has to unmask record numbers of russian operatives while some administrations have basically been asleep at the wheel says everything about who actually cares about security versus who just talks about it. and guess who suffers when foreign policy gets bungled, spoiler its not the people making decisions.

2

bestestopinion Apr 14, 2026 +1

“Isn’t anyone here not a Russian spy?”

1

Kurethius Apr 15, 2026 +1

And they would have gotten away with it too if it weren't for those damn meddling kids

1

External_Bobcat8183 Apr 15, 2026 +1

The report with photos and faces: [https://kapo.ee/sites/default/files/content_page_attachments/annual-review-2025-2026.pdf](https://kapo.ee/sites/default/files/content_page_attachments/annual-review-2025-2026.pdf)

1

Estonia unmasks record number of Russian spies

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