Cigarette Smugglers & Spies

Rob Dobi for BuzzFeed News

TALLINN, Estonia — Russia is recruiting smugglers on its western frontier to work as spies and informants in an attempt to destabilize its neighbor Estonia, a gateway to the European Union and NATO, a BuzzFeed News investigation can reveal.

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Each of the five men was a known smuggler, of anything from people to cigarettes, and the FSB was able to force them to work undercover in exchange for avoiding lengthy sentences in Russian prisons. Once they had been recruited, they were tasked with passing on information approximately everything from Estonian military bases to details approximately patrols flee by guards manning the border.