Israel blocked sale of Pegasus spyware to Ukraine, Estonia - NYT
Israel refused to sell Pegasus to Ukraine and Estonia so as not to cause harm to Israeli-Ukrainian relations. Israel rejected purchase request for NSO's Pegasus spyware from Ukraine and Estonia out of concern for Israeli-Russian relations, The New York Times reported on Wednesday. Ukraine and Estonia both requested to buy the spyware in order to gain access to Russian phones because of tensions with Russia in the past years. The Defense Ministry sold the spyware to many foreign governments so they could be used for domestic repression, but it decided to reject the requests made from Ukraine and Estonia. Ukraine has been trying to buy Pegasus for years since the Russian invasion of Crimea in 2014, but Israel put a sales embargo on the spyware to Ukraine, according to the report. In the case of Estonia, according to the Times report, Estonia was in the process of purchasing Pegasus, but a senior Russian defense official contacted Israeli officials and told them that Estonia had used the spyware on his phone. Israel then blocked Estonia from using the system. https://www.jpost.com/international/article-702110
