Estonia’s open border crossings have been Southern Finland The closest places from which you can get to Russia. Estonia closed access to Russia from Narva for the weekend for security reasons.
The Estonian border control authority advises to avoid crossing to Russia through Estonian border crossing points.
Estonian police and border guard agency PPA’s communication tells STT on Sunday that PPA is prepared to quickly close all anti-Russian border crossing points if the situation requires it. In that case, returning from Russia to Estonia would become very difficult. Estonia’s border crossing points have been Southern Finland The closest places from which you have reached Russia by land. Finland has kept its border crossings against Russia closed to passenger traffic since the end of last year.
The PPA closed pedestrian access to Russia from the Narva border crossing in northeastern Estonia for the weekend because, according to it, the Russian authorities slowed down entry procedures and caused congestion on the border bridge between the two countries. PPA justified the closure of traffic in Narva for safety reasons. During the weekend, however, traffic from Russia to Estonia has been kept open as planned, and border traffic in Narva is scheduled to continue as normal on Monday morning.
– We are monitoring the situation hour by hour, but we are prepared to close the border stations immediately, PPA operations manager Ivo Utsar reply to STT by e-mail.
“An attempt to shake the sense of security”
The Narva border crossing point, which is closest to St. Petersburg’s region from Estonia, has traditionally been the busiest border crossing point between Estonia and Russia. However, it has not been possible to cross the border from Narva by car since the beginning of February, but it has been allowed to cross the border into Russia on foot. The official reason given by Russia for restricting traffic has been the renovation of the Narva border station on the Russian side, which is scheduled to continue until the end of next year.
However, motorists have been able to get from South-East Estonia to Russia via the Luhama and Koidula border crossings. On Sunday, the PPA reported that the traffic restriction on Narva made waiting times longer than usual at other crossing points in Estonia as well. On Sunday afternoon, at the Koidula border crossing, you had to wait at least six hours before you could cross by motorcycle or car.
According to PPA, the slowdown seen in Narva during Midsummer on the Russian side was intentional.
– This is yet another Russian attempt to shake people’s sense of security by having to wait for hours at the border point, Utsar says.
According to him, in Narva on Sunday, the traffic of people returning to Estonia from Russia was temporarily queued up by the Estonian National Victory Day celebrations, which were held in the city. In addition to Midsummer’s Eve, June 23rd is Victory Day in Estonia, when the country celebrates the victory over Germany in 1919. The President of Estonia Alar Karis according to public broadcasting company ERR, gave a speech in Narva, and a military parade was also held there.
During the festivities, border traffic was closed for a few hours in the afternoon.
Translation Act to help with Finland’s border closure
The border between Estonia and Russia runs along the Narva River in the east, and there have been other skirmishes between the two countries in the area this spring. For example, in May, the PPA announced that it would find out why the Russian authorities moved the shipping lane buoys placed by the Estonians on the border river.
Along with Estonia, the actions of the Russian authorities have also affected border practices in Finland. Finland closed its anti-Russian border crossing points to passenger traffic last fall, when the Russian border authorities started allowing people whose entry documents were not in order to the Finnish border crossing points.
Finland’s government has considered Russia’s actions to be a hybrid operation. As one way to open the borders, a so-called conversion law has been prepared, which is currently being debated in the Finnish parliament. According to the bill, the acceptance of asylum applications could be limited to a part of Finland’s national border for a maximum of one month at a time.
Last week, the Constitutional Law Committee assessed that the bill in its current form is in conflict with the absolute prohibition of refoulement enshrined in human rights treaties. The administrative committee is scheduled to start considering the bill after Midsummer.