Main narratives:
- Anti-government sentiments;
- Anti-Ukrainian sentiments.
Overview:
In late August 2025, an armed drone believed to be Ukrainian strayed into Estonian airspace and crashed near Tartu. Estonian authorities suggested that Russian GPS jamming had likely diverted the drone from its intended course, causing it to veer off track before exploding in a field. While no one was hurt, the incident reignited debates in Estonia about the need to strengthen layered air defenses and accelerate the planned “drone wall” along the eastern border. Pro-Kremlin online commentators quickly seized on the incident, framing it not as the result of Russian interference but as evidence of Estonia’s supposed weakness. Posts and comments questioned why the government had been unable to intercept the drone, portraying NATO’s Baltic defenses as porous and unreliable. Some went further, accusing Ukraine of being ungrateful toward Estonia, despite the country’s significant military and humanitarian support to Kyiv. As is typical of Kremlin-aligned disinformation campaigns, these narratives aimed to undermine public trust in Estonia’s security institutions and cast doubt on NATO’s ability to defend its frontline states. At the same time, they sought to drive wedges between allies and Ukraine, amplifying division rather than acknowledging the role of Russian hybrid tactics in triggering the incident.
Another topic discussed in the Russian-speaking segment of social media was the news that, against the backdrop of the Finance Ministry’s positive new forecast, the ruling parties began talking about possible tax relief measures – including the cancellation of the car tax and the reversal of the additional increase in personal income tax. Such statements by the ruling Reform Party and Eesti 200 were perceived by commentators as cheap populism ahead of the upcoming local government elections.
The debate was further intensified by the news that the Statistics Department had made an error in calculating the average salary in the country for the second quarter of 2025. All of this once again served as a reason to spread the narrative about the “incompetence of state authorities” in Estonia.
