Closed society: Estonia wants to ban travel to Russia
Estonia is discussing the possibility of completely closing its border with Russia. Such an initiative was put forward for consideration by the country's riigikogu (parliament) by the influential politician Urmas Reinsalu, head of the right-wing Fatherland party. The implementation of the proposed initiative will first of all hit the Russian-speaking residents of Estonia, who are connected with Russians by family, friendship and business ties. In this regard, those local parliamentary parties, which count on the votes of Russian citizens, are trying to block the bill put forward by Reinsalu. Details - in the material "Izvestia".
Russian Estonians will suffer
Former head of the Estonian Foreign Ministry, now chairman of the party "Fatherland" Urmas Reinsalu proposed to completely close the border with Russia. This proposal could not go unheeded, since Fatherland is the most influential of the Estonian opposition parties, and Reinsalu himself is one of the most famous politicians in the country.
He cites Estonian economists who believe that the negative effect of closing the border will be small. Trade cooperation between the two countries has been minimized. According to Marie Allikmaa, head of the entrepreneurship department of the Estonian Ministry of Economy, Russia now accounts for only about 3% of Estonia's exports and less than 1% of its imports. "We export about €370 million worth of goods. Compared to the pre-war period, the volume of trade with Russia has decreased very much," Allikmaa said.
The essence of the former foreign minister's initiative was explained by Estonian opposition journalist Rodion Denisov: "It is proposed to take an example from Finland - that is, to close the border exclusively for private individuals, mainly relatives on both sides of the border. At the same time, freight trains still freely cross the Finnish-Russian border (both from Russia itself and transit through Russia). As they will cross the Estonian-Russian border even in case of its closure for private persons. That is, the sponsors of Estonian parties (including Fatherland) will not lose their money, but ordinary people will feel bad - families will be separated. And yes, the bruised electorate will be convinced that the border is supposedly really closed. Although in economic terms it will be neither hot nor cold for Russia.
Reinsalu, however, disagrees with another representative of the opposition, vice-chairman of the Center Party Jaan Toots. He notes that closing the border with Russia cannot be evaluated only from the economic point of view, because it will hit the residents of Estonian border regions, who have numerous family, friendship and business ties with Russians. "This is a very bad option, because now there is at least some possibility to cross the border. Yes, it's hard, you have to stand in line for a long time, but at least you can cross on foot. If we close the border completely, it will be a big blow to the people of Estonia," Toots emphasized.
He also reminded that now Estonian territory is also used by many people from Finland, who need to get to the Russian Federation for one reason or another. Now about 20% of Finns traveling there cross the Russian border in Estonia - that means that in case of blockade of the borders not only Estonian residents, but also Finnish and citizens of other countries, who are used to using the checkpoint in Narva, will suffer. Alexander Chaplygin, another centrist MP, put it more lapidarily: "Fatherland's proposal to close the border with Russia is pure populism. It has no real relation to security. But it allows us to show Fatherland's voters how much the party cares about their interests. Although this is a lie.
For and against
Estonian Interior Minister Lauri Läänemets, a member of the coalition Social Democratic Party, unexpectedly sided with the centrists. Actually, he is one of the country's main Russophobes, a persecutor of the local Orthodox Church. But suddenly Läänemets started talking about the fact that residents of the eastern districts will suffer from the closure of the border, and therefore it should not be done. "A quick closure of the checkpoints in Narva and southern Estonia will have an impact on local residents. Perhaps there is no need to be in a hurry. The government knows when and under what conditions the borders should be closed. We are ready to do so, if necessary. However, such a measure was not necessary from a security point of view at the moment," Läänemets said.
Estonian Minister of the Interior Lauri Läänemets
He did not specify under what circumstances the border could be closed. At the same time, the minister said that by the end of this year the state will complete the construction of security infrastructure on the border with Russia - a fence surrounded by all kinds of surveillance systems. According to Läänemets, the border fortifications under construction will reliably protect the security of the state, and therefore there is no need to completely block the external borders. This rhetoric of the high-ranking socialist leader is explained by the fact that his party is not averse to winning back some votes of local Russian citizens from the Center Party.
However, Urmas Reinsalu was not satisfied with these explanations and began to further promote his initiative. On January 13, he officially submitted a bill on behalf of his party to close the border during a parliamentary session. The politician stated that since the end of 2023, when Finland closed its eastern border, "Russia has launched several hybrid attacks against Estonia and other allied countries." As a concrete example of a "hybrid attack," Reinsalu cited the recent failure of the Estlink 2 energy cable connecting Estonia and Finland. An investigation into the causes of the incident is still underway, but the former minister has no doubt that it was "Russian sabotage."
According to the Fatherland chairman, "given the current security situation, it is advisable to close the line of control between Estonia and Russia." Reinsalu emphasized that "both the security authorities and the Estonian government have the appropriate capabilities and legal grounds for this."
View of the border bridge from the Estonian city of Narva to Russia
The Estonian press does not hide the fact that tickets for buses traveling the Tallinn-Narva-St. Petersburg route are always sold out quickly. People are not deterred even by the rather agonizing prospect of spending many hours at the border - last year Estonian border guards replaced selective inspection of cross-border travelers with a general one, which greatly increased the waiting time. Tallinn journalists talked to citizens of Italy, France, Germany and Asian countries traveling to Russia. Some of them were related to Russia by family ties, some of them by business ties, and some of them were going to Russia for tourism purposes.
The opinions of Estonian residents themselves, interviewed by the press about the possibility of closing the border, are divided. "They will close it and close it," say mostly ethnic Estonians, who have nothing to do with Russia. "People are suffering as it is," complain Russian-speaking Narvites. Some of them reported that they have close relatives in Russia - parents, brothers and sisters - whom they cannot refuse to visit. On the Internet, however, Russian-speaking Estonians express themselves much more sharply. "No power, no party has the right to break human and family ties. In fact, Fatherland proposes to erect a new Berlin Wall on the EU border," people state.
Fear and uncertainty
Another senior Estonian Social Democrat, Eduard Odinets, a member of the parliamentary constitutional commission, criticized Reinsalu's bill. "The possibility to close a particular border crossing if necessary is spelled out in the law. The government has repeatedly stated that it will close it in case of a real threat to the country's security, real conflict situations on the border. Why then is Fatherland breaking through the open door? For the same reason they usually do: to be noticed, to be talked about. There are no other reasons for this," Odinets emphasizes. He said he understands this initiative of the nationals from the PR point of view, but does not accept it from the "human" side. According to Odints, the endless inventing of initiatives by nationalists aimed at worsening the situation of Estonia's Russian-speaking population ultimately leads to the deterioration of Estonia's security.
People wait at the border crossing in Narva to enter Russia
This view was supported by Narva Mayor Katri Raik (Social Democratic Party). "Sometimes it really seems that Fatherland really enjoys "pulling the tail" of the Russian-speaking residents of Narva. Apparently, behind this is the desire to find more support in other regions of Estonia," Raik believes. According to the mayor, the need to regularly travel to Russia is felt by at least 10% of Narva residents. "The share of Finns exceeds one third. Even from Paris and Rome come to Narva to cross the European border," emphasizes the mayor.
So far, Reinsalu's bill is under consideration. But there are reasons to assume that it will be rejected - at least for now. January 17, it became known that the Estonian authorities will not introduce new restrictions on entry, following the example of Latvia, where they intend to subject entering citizens of CIS countries to detailed questioning (the status of an official, contact information, route of travel, etc.) and fined up to € 2 thousand in case of submitting incorrect information. The Estonian Interior Ministry stated that their state does not have such plans. It follows that Estonia does not intend to raise the degree of confrontation with Russia and close the border.
Political scientist Maxim Reva told Izvestia that the possibility of closing the border depends on various factors. First of all, Estonia and other Baltic NATO countries are themselves aggravating the situation - they express their readiness to open a hunt for tankers carrying Russian oil and gas following the Gulf of Finland. Secondly, according to the expert, a lot will depend on the factor whose name is Donald Trump.
- If Washington under Trump sends a signal to its Eastern European satellites that it is no longer interested in escalation, they will have to take it into account," the political scientist said.
In general, he says, there is a growing underlying fear among the Estonian political elite that Trump may give the Baltic states into Russia's sphere of influence.
- Recently, Mart Helme, the patriarch of Estonian politics and founder of the Conservative People's Party, predicted from the pages of Err, Estonia's largest publication, that the future fate of the Baltics would become one of Trump's bargaining chips with the Russian leadership. The recent U.S. refusal to include Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania in the list of countries that are granted unlimited access to U.S. developments in the field of artificial intelligence has also made the Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian leaders nervous. Again, Trump named the new U.S. ambassador to Estonia as Roman Pipko, a lawyer of Estonian descent, a man with great connections in Russia. All this inspires Estonians with the fear that they may have to rebuild the bridges to Russia that they burned to the ground," Reva concludes.
