Estonia has accused Russia of weaponising immigration on Europe’s eastern borders amid a rise in the number of asylum seekers trying to enter its territory and Finland.
Speaking during a meeting in Stockholm of Nordic and Baltic defence ministers, Hanno Pevkur, Estonia’s defence minister, claimed the hundreds of people who had arrived at the borders of the two countries in recent weeks were a “fully state-orchestrated” operation by Moscow.
Latvia’s defence minister, Andris Sprūds, went a step further, blaming the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, who he described as the “puppet master”.