Arson attack on a Ukrainian restaurant in Estonia was ordered by Russian intelligence, a court says
Last year, an incendiary attack on a restaurant and a supermarket in Estonia was ordered by Russian intelligence, an Estonian court announced on Wednesday.
The attack was one in a series through Europe followed by the Associated Press and linked to Russia by Western officials. The goal, they said, is to sow the division in Western societies and undermine support for Ukraine.
The Tribunal of the County of Harju in Estonia said that the authors were two Moldovan men who are cousins, both appointed Ivan Chihaial. One was sentenced to 6 and a half years in prison for the criminal fire attack against the restaurant and the supermarket, which, according to the court, was led on behalf of the security services of Russia.
The other Ivan Chihaiaial was an accomplice and sentenced to 2 and a half years in prison.
In a statement, the court said that the first chihaiale had been responsible for the operation by Russian military information, known as the Gru.
He said he had carried out a test operation on behalf of the GRU in January 2024, set fire to a cooperative supermarket in the village of Osula, in southeast Estonia. The next day, someone acting on behalf of the GRU instructed him to set fire to the Slava Ukraina restaurant in the capital, Tallinn.
Chihaial led with his cousin to the restaurant on the night of January 31, 2024, then they set fire to it and left Estonia. The court said that the cousin of Chihaial was unaware that he was working for the Gru.
The court said that the defendants set fire to the supermarket and the restaurant by breaking a window, pouring petrol, placing a bag with a box of petrol inside and lighting it.
The authorities in Latvia, Lithuania and Poland worked to hold the men who were apprehended in Italy before being sent to Estonia to be tried, said the triinu state prosecutor Olev-Aas.
The criminal fire is the last attack on Estonia since the large -scale invasion of Ukraine by Russia in February 2022. In previous cases, Estonia underwent cyberattacks and car windows belonging to a politician and a journalist were broken.
The previous attackers were recruited in Russia, which shares a border with Estonia. The Estonian internal security service said that the fact that Russia’s intelligence agencies used Moldovans sent to the country have shown that they are increasingly difficult to recruit, including among double citizens.
Russia has been accused of a sabotage campaign generalized by Western officials since its invasion of Ukraine. In addition to criminal fire cases, attacks across Europe range from the stuffing that exhaust tupeaux with expanding foam in Germany to a plot to plant explosives on freight planes, the hacking that targeted politicians and critical infrastructure and spying by a United Kingdom sentenced to the United Kingdom
President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov told AP that the Kremlin had never been shown “no evidence” supporting the accusations of a wider sabotage campaign and said “certainly we certainly reject all allegations”.
