The Estonian Customs Service justifies the full-scale inspections with recently more common violations of sanctions.
NARVA The earliest queuers have already arrived at three in the morning to wait for the Narva border station to open. The station opens at seven, and from eight in the morning there is a hundred-meter long queue in front of the border crossing.
– Last time it took half an hour on the Estonian side and five and a half on the Russian side. Today it seems to be the opposite, the resident of Karkkila Arina Lebayeva evaluate.
On Thursday, Estonia started full-scale customs checks for all travelers to Russia. The Tax and Customs Administration warned in advance that the time it takes to cross the border may increase due to intensive inspections.
Previously, inspections were based on risk assessment. However, there were so many enforcement violations that the tactics had to be changed, says the manager of the Narva customs station Ants Kutti.
– We have quite often found microcircuits, night vision devices and other military equipment, even parts of weapons. Also drones, Kutti says in an interview with .
The European Union has imposed extensive sanctions on Russia due to its war of aggression. They also include ban on the export or import of numerous products.
Products that look ordinary
Border crossers react to information about full-scale customs inspections in their own way.
– We think this is another piece of stupidity. The lines just keep getting longer and people have to wait longer and longer, Muscovites Alexander Stariltsov and Tatyana Pokrovskaya state.
According to Arina Lebajeva, the authorities should handle the situation.
– People queue for hours. This has to be solved somehow.
From Tallinn Natalja Levonskaja on the other hand, there is not even a word about new inspections.
– For God’s sake, that’s all! I don’t think people carry anything illegal.
Most of them don’t even travel, says Ants Kutti. Even the majority of violations are due to ignorance or a mistake.
– In the eyes of an ordinary citizen, they are ordinary products, such as motor oil or vehicle spare parts. However, they must not be exported to Russia, Kutti says.
Lives in Tallinn Tatyana Vorontsova takes a calm attitude to the customs’ efficiency inspections. You just have to learn the rules.
– This time I didn’t take cosmetics with me, because it’s not allowed to be taken even for personal use, says Vorontsova.
Customs boss: Finns violate sanctions out of ignorance
The share of Finnish citizens or those living in Finland with a residence permit among border crossers in Narva has remained high.
– About a third of border crossers are currently from Finland, Kutti says.
Ants Kutti praises those who live in Finland for being law-abiding. However, according to him, the problem is that the list of prohibited products gets longer with each round of sanctions decided by the EU.
– The Finns have products subject to sanctions mainly because of their ignorance. They mark them for customs clearance and experience an unpleasant surprise when they cross the border, when they can’t take them across the border, Kutti describes.
After the closure of Finland’s eastern border, Narva has been the closest border crossing point to Finland on the way to Russia.
In Narva, however, you have to cross the border on foot, because Russia has closed its own border station to traffic during renovations. They are estimated to last at least until the end of 2025.
When the border station is also closed at night, the queues have sometimes been long without even power checks.
– It depends on the situation. I’ve made it in half an hour, but I’ve had to queue on the Estonian side for five hours and on the bridge [matkalla Venäjälle] more, Tatyana Vorontsova says.
The mouth has been played, but there has been no riot
The head of the border station Marek Livan according to the long queue heats up emotions every now and then. However, no one has had to be ironed.
– Our task as authorities is to remain calm. Discussion and calmness are our weapons, says Liiva.
On the way out of the border station, I meet a familiar-looking couple from Moscow. Aleksander Stariltsov and Tatjana Pokrovskaya have advanced a distance of about fifty meters in three hours.
There are still twenty meters to the door of the border station and the customs inspection waiting behind it.