HELSINKI (AP) – Estonia’s foreign intelligence agency said on Wednesday that Russia is counting on the COVID-19 pandemic to weaken unity in the West, which would help Moscow take a more prominent role in international affairs and lead to ‘declining Western influence on the world stage. “
The Kremlin thinks the pandemic will force Western countries to focus on domestic policies and economic problems and facilitate the rise of populist and extremist movements, Estonian Foreign Intelligence said in its annual report
“Russia, for its part, is ready to add fuel to the flames to encourage these trends,” the report said. “Therefore, in 2021, Russian operations will again be affected which are intended to create and deepen divisions within and between Western societies, including at the EU (European Union) level.”
The authors of the 79-page document said the Russian strategy would likely include attempts to discredit COVID-19 vaccines developed in Western countries, especially those from the British-Swedish company AstraZeneca. Russian propaganda has labeled the vaccine that AstraZeneca developed with the University of Oxford in England as a ‘monkey vaccine’.
“With these smear campaigns, Russia hopes on the one hand to create a more favorable position for its own vaccines on the world market and, on the other hand, to promote its strategic ambition to show itself as the first of the great powers. to provide a solution to the COVID-19 crisis, ”the report said.
The Russian government did not immediately respond to the intelligence report from Estonia, a former Soviet republic. Moscow has repeatedly denied similar Western claims of malicious intent in the past. It has also accused the West of discrediting Russia-produced COVID-19 vaccine, Sputnik V.
Russia is actively promoting Sputnik V in several European countries, including Serbia. Hungary was the first and so far only European Union country to have purchased quantities of Sputnik V.
“The coronavirus epidemic has not diminished the actions and ambitions of (Russian President Vladimir) Putin’s regime. On the contrary, we can see an attempt to use the pandemic to reap profit for (Russia’s) domestic and foreign policy, ”Estonian agency director general Mikk Marran told reporters at a press conference in Tallinn , the country’s capital.
The report addressed the new US leadership and President Joe Biden and said Russia’s agenda on Washington is unlikely to change significantly and remain “largely confrontational.”
Estonia’s relations with neighboring Russia have remained chilly since 1991, when the Baltic nation of 1.3 million inhabitants and its neighbors Latvia and Lithuania regained their independence during the fall of the Soviet Union. The three countries have since joined NATO and the European Union.
While the focus was largely on events in Russia or in neighboring countries such as Belarus and Ukraine, the report also discussed developments in China. It said Beijing’s ambitious plan to become the global technology leader “poses major security threats” to the rest of the world.
New-generation 5G mobile networks, advanced satellite navigation technology, cloud services and artificial intelligence were cited in the report as examples of where China has or hopes to play a key role in the world.
China’s “leadership has a clear goal of making the world dependent on Chinese technology,” the document states.
The report’s authors also warned Estonia’s leadership that the country’s integration “into China’s autonomous technology ecosystem makes Estonia vulnerable and dependent on China.”
Estonia previously banned China’s Huawei, the world’s leading 5G technology provider, from supplying technology and equipment to the government, citing security concerns.