NARVA Finland’s decision to close the border crossings on the eastern border has significantly increased the number of border crossings to Russia at the Narva border crossing.
Narva is located in Northeastern Estonia, about two hundred kilometers east of Tallinn.
There are now an average of one thousand more border crossings per week than before Finland’s decisions to start closing the eastern border crossing points. That means an increase of 25 percent.
The growth is almost entirely traffic from Finland to Russia, says the PPA department head of the Estonian Police and Border Agency Eve Kalmus To .
If Estonia decides to close its eastern border like Finland, it will happen very quickly, according to the PPA. Border crossing points can be closed within an hour of the government’s decision.
– We ask that you do not travel to Russia. Those who have already gone to Russia may find themselves in a situation where returning will be very difficult, Kalmus emphasizes.
We cross the border with an electronic appointment
PPA also had time to worry that the traffic going from Finland to Russia via Estonia could block the streets of the center of Narva.
In Narva, the border crossing point is on the bank of the border river in the city center. There is an electronic appointment booking system and, if necessary, a waiting area on the edge of the city.
In the PPA, it was anticipated that people coming from Finland, who are not familiar with the system, might try to go directly to the border station and cause confusion.
On Thursday and Friday of this week, however, the situation was under control. There were more than two hundred passenger cars and the same number of trucks in the electronic queue.
The cars that arrived at the border crossing with an appointment stood in a neat line on the street assigned to them. Many of them had a Finnish registration number.
Lives in Helsinki Alexei Rumyantsev was born in Estonia to a Russian-speaking family. He told that he was going to Russia because his mother is from there.
– Friends, relatives, hobbies. I am a pilot, Rumyantsev listed the reasons for his trips to Russia.
And what will you do if Estonia also closes its eastern border?
– I’m waiting for people to come to their senses, Rumyantsev shook his head.
Many other Finnish cars also had passengers who spoke Russian as their mother tongue. From Tampere Vladislav Kaigorodtsev traveled with his family to St. Petersburg on vacation and to meet his parents and friends.
– I like Finland very much: the nature, the culture… Now, however, politics is ruining travel.
His family does not understand the Finnish government’s border decisions. Kaigorodtsev suspects that the asylum seekers are just an excuse and that there are “political reasons” behind everything.
– Me and my friends go to work, pay taxes and support peace. I don’t understand why this is happening to us, ordinary people, Kaigorodtsev wonders.
In Narva, border traffic will end soon anyway
Estonia has been spared a larger Russian hybrid operation. Only 30 immigrants who were clearly controlled by the Russian authorities were met in Narva during the month.
According to the PPA and the Estonian Ministry of the Interior, these are migrants who were not allowed to cross the border to the Estonian side.
Chief Inspector of Narva Border Guard Station Kätlin Liiva assures that Estonia can withstand a flood of tens or hundreds of immigrants if necessary.
Concrete barriers and barbed wire have been stored on the border bridge. These are used to prepare for, among other things, a situation where the border needs to be caught quickly.
– In addition, they are ready for the fact that vehicle traffic passing through the Narva border crossing point will probably end from February 1, says Liiva.
He refers to Russia’s decision to close Ivangorod, i.e. Ivananlinna, border station on the east bank of the Narva River to vehicles during its renovation.
In other words, you will soon be unable to drive to Russia or back through Narva, even if Estonia avoids hybrid attacks and the eastern border otherwise remains open. There is no exact information on the duration of the repairs, but they have been evaluated in public take up to a couple of years.
There are three international border crossing points on the border between Estonia and Russia, two of which are located in southeast Estonia. In addition, Estonia’s eastern border has two border crossing points for rail traffic and two only for citizens of Estonia and Russia.
Estonia has built almost 50 kilometers of border fence on its border with Russia. The total length of the cross-country border is 136 kilometers.