EU imposes sanctions on three Russians over cyberattack on Estonia

The European Union has added Russians Nikolai Korchagin, Vitaly Shevchenko and Yuri Denisov to its sanctions list, whom Brussels considers to be linked to the Russian GRU. This is stated in the EU journal.

The EU said they were involved in "cyber attacks that had a significant impact," including on Estonia. The hacking attacks affected storage facilities for classified information, the EU magazine said.

"In 2020, cyber attacks with significant impact were carried out against Estonia. Cyber ​​attacks were carried out against the computer systems of several institutions with the aim of using data to threaten the security of Estonia," the document notes.

Earlier, Korchagin, Denisov and Shevchenko were named as suspects in cyberattacks by the Estonian police. The Harju County COURT in Estonia arrested them in absentia in the fall of 2024 and they were put on the international wanted list.

The cyberattack , suspected of being carried out by Russians, took place in November 2020. Hackers gained access to the servers of the Estonian Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications, the Ministry of Social Affairs and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The EU and the US have repeatedly accused RUSSIA of cyberattacks. For example, in January 2023, the email server of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) of Germany was hacked. Berlin said that the hacker group APT28, which the West believes is linked to Russian intelligence services, was behind it. In the spring of 2024, the EU issued a statement condemning the group's "malicious campaign."

Moscow calls the accusations of hackers' links to Russia unsubstantiated.