Posted by 
Russian university professor Vyacheslav Morozov was on Tuesday sentenced by an Estonian court to six years and three months imprisonment for collecting defense intelligence for Moscow.
The action by Estonia is the latest in a string of incidents highlighting increased Russian spying activity within the European Union.
Morozov had been acting under instructions to collect information “about Estonia’s internal, defense and security policy and the people and infrastructure related to it,” Taavi Pern, the lead state prosecutor at Harju county court, said in a statement.
The professor had forwarded information to Russia’s military intelligence service “about the political situation and elections in Estonia, allied relations and integration,” the prosecutor added. “This was information that he had access to due to his position as a researcher as well as publicly available information that Russia could use to threaten Estonia.”
The court said the professor had been cooperating with Moscow “for a long time.”
Reports of Russian espionage activities targeting EU countries have increased in recent months, prompting concern among the bloc’s leaders.
Earlier on Tuesday, German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser warned espionage and cyberattacks are on the rise in Germany as she presented an annual report by the country’s domestic intelligence agency.
“The threat to our democracy from espionage, sabotage, disinformation and cyberattacks has reached a new dimension,” she said, adding that the Kremlin is now waging a more intense, many-sided campaign against Berlin, conducting espionage while also carrying out cyberattacks and disinformation operations.
On Monday, the Wall Street Journal reported that two Russians who posed as Argentinian immigrants in Slovenia used the country — which is in both NATO and the EU — as a base to travel to nearby European countries to pay sources and communicate orders from Moscow before they were arrested in December 2022.
According to the the Wall Street Journal, some 700 suspected Russian intelligence officers operating under diplomatic cover have been expelled worldwide in the aftermath of Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Last week, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said members of the defense alliance will take tougher action against Russian spies in response to Moscow’s campaign of hostile activities, including acts of sabotage and cyberattacks.
“The Morozov case shows that sooner or later we will reach even the most conspiratorial agent. We advise those working for the benefit of the Russian special services to contact us themselves,” said Margo Palloson, director general of the Estonian Defense Police Service.
