BRUSSELS (AP) — European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell on Friday called the removal of Estonian handcuffs by Russian border guards on a river separating the Baltic country from Russia “unacceptable” and demanded an explanation from Moscow and the immediate return of the orange buoys. floats.
On Thursday morning, Estonian border guards noticed that their Russian counterparts had removed 25 of the 50 buoys that Estonia had installed on the Narva River to prevent boats from accidentally crossing the border.
Borrell said the incident is “part of a broader pattern of provocative behavior and hybrid actions by Russia.”
Estonia also called it “unacceptable” but said its response “remains calm and clear.”
“We consider this a provocative border incident,” the Foreign Ministry in Tallinn said on Thursday.
For decades, Estonia and Russia have installed buoys on the Narva River for the summer, with the towns of Narva on the Estonian side and Ivangorod on the Russian bank, largely by mutual agreement.
Every year, the marking of shipping lanes is rechecked because “the riverbed changes over time,” said Eerik Purgel, head of Estonia’s local border guard. Last year, Russia said it disagreed with the locations of the Estonian buoys.
This year “we have decided to release the floating markers into the water for the summer season according to an agreement for 2022, as they are necessary to avoid navigation errors, so that our fishermen and other hobbyists do not accidentally stray into Russian waters”, he says. said.
The first 50 buoys were installed on May 13. However, 25 of them were removed by their Russian counterparts early in the morning 10 days later, he added.
The Estonian Foreign Ministry summoned Russia’s deputy head of mission on Friday, the Baltic News Service said. BNS quoted Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna as saying that they “have clearly informed the Russian chargé d’affaires that such actions are provocative and unacceptable.”
The Estonian Foreign Ministry said the action “fits well within the broader pattern of Russia’s provocative behavior,” drawing parallels with the border incidents in the Baltic Sea earlier this week. According to media reports, Moscow may revise the boundaries of its territorial waters in the region.
The draft proposal was published on an official Russian government website for draft laws, but disappeared hours after it was posted on Wednesday. It was not immediately clear why.
Russian media said the Defense Ministry in Moscow had proposed updating the coordinates used to measure the strip of territorial waters off the coast of the mainland and that of islands in the Baltic Sea. The existing coordinates were approved in 1985, the ministry said, adding that they were “based on small-scale nautical navigation charts” and do not correspond to the “modern geographical situation.”
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov later said there was “nothing political” in the Defense Ministry proposal, and Russian news agencies said Moscow had no intention of revising the border or the width of its territorial waters.
Since Russia’s large-scale invasion of Ukraine in early 2022, Finland and Sweden have joined NATO, meaning that the Baltic Sea – Russia’s maritime access point to the city of St. Petersburg and the Kaliningrad enclave – is now almost surrounded by members of NATO. Military alliance.
