WASHINGTON --As Russia's war against Ukraine reshapes Europe's security landscape, Estonia remains one of the countries most closely watching the Kremlin's next moves. From Russia's first-ever unannounced live-fire exercise on Lake Peipus on Estonia's border to Tallinn's push for an EU-wide ban on Russian ex-combatants entering the Schengen area, Estonia argues that Europe must prepare not only for military threats but also for hybrid warfare, foreign influence operations, and long-term security risks.In an interview with RFE/RL in Washington, Estonia's Undersecretary for Internal Security Joosep Kaasik discusses why Tallinn believes prevention is Europe's best defense, explains the reasoning behind Estonia's law severing the Estonian Orthodox Church's administrative ties to the Moscow Patriarchate, and assesses Russia's growing partnerships with countries such as Iran.RFE/RL: Russia has conducted its first-ever live-fire military exercise on Lake Peipus without notifying Estonia. How seriously does Estonia view this development?Joosep Kaasik: We have to understand that the Russian side is exercising all the time on the other side of the border. Yes, indeed, it happened for the first time on Lake Peipus in recent years, but they are doing similar exercises at sea as well. So this is something we simply have to understand as part of how they behave.Of course, it would be nice if they informed their neighbors about those exercises, but on the other hand we also have to understand that every country is independent in these matters and decides how it conducts such activities. I'm quite sure that if we held an exercise on our side, I'm not sure we would want to inform the other side about every exercise either.In that sense, we have to look at these things calmly and in a balanced way because this is normal military activity. Of course, for us it is worrying because it also means they are exercising how to use force on Lake Peipus, which is definitely not in our interests.'They Don't Care About Anything And They Will Do Whatever They Think Is Necessary'RFE/RL: Does this incident signal a broader shift in Russia's military behavior along NATO's eastern border?Kaasik: When we look back at everything Russia has done so far, I think they have always signaled that they don't care. They don't care about anything, and they will do whatever they think is necessary -- first of all to create confusion in neighboring countries. As we can see from many of their activities, this is their modus operandi.We can never say exactly what the aim of a particular activity is, but they have already achieved part of their goal when the whole world is talking about it. That is also why I think we should not always pay so much attention to these activities because it creates an atmosphere of fear everywhere.