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- The test is not for the faint of heart: Estonia has turned the border with Russia into an obstacle course
The test is not for the faint of heart: Estonia has turned the border with Russia into an obstacle course
The Estonian authorities have done everything possible to turn the process of crossing the border with Russia into a real torture — sometimes people are forced to stand in the heat or frost for days at a time. The situation worsened on the eve of the winter holidays, when EU residents flocked to Russia en masse to visit relatives or for tourism purposes. But the Estonian authorities deliberately created truly unbearable conditions at the checkpoint in Narva. There are huge queues of men, women, and children standing in the open air in the December cold. Estonian officials flatly refuse to improve the conditions for crossing the border — in their opinion, if a person goes to Russia, then he should be punished for this. Details can be found in the Izvestia article.
The Tarot Minister doesn't care
A stream of residents from different EU countries traveling to Russia for various needs passes through Narva, Estonia. For example, this route serves representatives of the Russian community of Finland, who have been deprived of the opportunity to reach their historical homeland directly. Now they travel to Russia via Estonia, as it is several times cheaper than taking, for example, a flight ticket via Istanbul. Citizens of the Baltic States, Scandinavia, Germany, Italy, Spain and other countries also use the checkpoint in Narva. The winter holiday season is approaching, and the number of people crossing the border at this time always increases significantly.
However, the Estonian authorities have done everything possible to make the process of crossing the border as painful as possible. Firstly, back in 2024, the Narva-1 checkpoint was switched to daytime operation - it is inactive from 23.00 to 07.00. Secondly, selective inspection at the border has been replaced by universal. Thirdly, the authorities can close the checkpoint at will for several days — for example, from April 30 to May 3, 2025, Narva-1 was closed under the pretext of "exercises". The result of all these measures did not slow down to have an impact: during the summer holidays, the average waiting time at the checkpoint in Narva reached 16-20 hours — and sometimes even longer. A person who joined the queue at four in the morning might not have time to cross the border before the checkpoint was closed at 23.00. Now the border crisis has resumed.
At a meeting with Estonian Interior Minister Igor Taro, held back in May, residents of Narva made a number of proposals to increase border capacity: increasing the opening hours of the border checkpoint, resuming biometric passport checks at the exit to Russia, customs inspection before crossing the border, creating acceptable conditions for those waiting, and organizing an electronic queue system. However, the Interior Minister rejected all the proposals outright: "The state cannot spend money on this. The border crossing service is already provided free of charge."
Igor Taro said that he was aware of the trade in places in queues at border checkpoints. According to the minister, the police turn a blind eye to this: Interior Ministry officers sometimes interfere in disputes that arise in queues, but they do not do it systematically. Tarot doesn't care about the fact that people who stand in the heat or cold for long hours regularly get sick and have to call an ambulance. The journalists warned the minister that sooner or later it would end in tragedy. Earlier, the idea was expressed to install an awning near the Narva-1 border checkpoint to shelter from precipitation and the scorching sun, but it was never implemented. In general, as Minister Taro made it clear, the suffering of people at the border is still their personal problem.
It should be noted that a volunteer movement has emerged in Narva — volunteers from among local Russians help people trapped on the border. For example, in winter, they distributed warming insoles to women standing in line and gave people hot tea. However, the volunteers are unable to eliminate the root of the problem. Those who face the most difficult task of entering Russia from Estonia have created thematic groups on social networks where they exchange impressions and advice. Sometimes women with children, who are forced to stay at the border all night, manage to negotiate with their neighbors in turn, and they go to find a place to sleep in Narva, and return in the morning.
A separate topic is the return entry from Russia to Estonia. There is no need to wait long here, primarily due to the professional work of the Russian border guards. But a different kind of problem awaits those leaving Russia — their luggage is carefully searched by Estonians. The European Union has imposed many bans on the import of Russian products, including various kinds of technical equipment, personal hygiene items, cosmetics, alcohol, tobacco products, and food. However, restrictions on the import of personal items are advisory in nature; customs officers may not confiscate them. But here everything depends on the goodwill of one or another Estonian customs officer, and judging by the reviews, they interpret the laws as they please.
We were lucky — we made it to the night
The Izvestia correspondent spoke with Alexander Kovalev, who lives in Ireland. He entered Russia through the Estonian border last Thursday. Kovalev, a native of Latvia, like hundreds of thousands of other Baltic immigrants, moved to Western Europe in search of work. He and his wife were on their way to St. Petersburg to visit Alexander's wife's mother, who lives there. Kovalev said that they flew from Dublin to Tallinn, from where they quickly took a bus to the border. And there, according to him, they immediately realized that a difficult test was ahead — they saw a huge queue of three hundred people moving extremely slowly.
The Kovalevs joined the back of the queue at about 2.15 p.m. The wait was not just painful, it turned out to be extremely nervous. "The people who stood in front of us turned out to be experienced. They condescendingly told us that there was a high probability that we would not be able to cross the border before 11 p.m. And at 11 a.m. Estonians will lower the barrier and raise it again only at seven in the morning. Naturally, we were concerned about this prospect. They started asking: what should I do if I have to spend the night at the border? Perhaps there are some rooms here for those who did not manage to cross over to the Russian side before nightfall? No, it turns out there's nothing like that: you'll have to stand outdoors all night and wait. Then our nervousness turned into panic," says Alexander.
According to him, all the facilities for people queuing at the border, which the Estonian authorities have been generous with, are several benches. "If you come to an agreement with the people in the queue, you can go to the paid toilet located in the distance. There are also several cafes and a shopping center relatively nearby, but they are closed at night. From talking to the people standing next to me, I found out that they came from all over the European Union — a Russian-speaking man from Sweden, a lady from the Netherlands, a couple with children from Italy. There were a lot of families with children queuing up. Only those parents who arrived with infants were allowed to pass without waiting in line. If a child is older than an infant, even by a little, then there was no leniency for him — stand in line like everyone else," explains Kovalev.
The temperature was tolerable — +2 degrees, although it should have dropped at night, of course. Another feature of the queue turned out to be the fact that scammers periodically tried to break into it. "As I understand it, it was the locals from among the inhabitants of Narva who came up with such a craft. Its essence lies in the fact that they try to get into the middle of the queue by hook or by crook, and then put the place they captured up for auction. This is done brazenly and shamelessly. It happens that scammers try to prove that, they say, "I was standing here from the very beginning, but I had to go to the toilet." Or they bring small children with them and put pressure on pity: "Good people, let them pass, you see, the child is suffering." If these tricks turn out to be successful, then the dodgers send their accomplices to the people standing in the tail with an offer — if you are ready to fork out, you can reduce your wait by several hours. They are asking for an amount equivalent to five thousand Russian rubles for this," Kovalev testifies.
According to Alexander, in cases when scammers behave especially aggressively and shamelessly, winning back a place in the queue, loud conflicts and skirmishes break out. But the Estonian border guards interfere in these conflicts only if they arise very close to the entrance to the checkpoint. "The queue itself is moving extremely slowly, because, as it turned out, only three reception windows were working with people. We approached the goal only at 22.00. During these almost eight hours, my wife and I experienced a range of emotions — from hope to moral readiness to spend the night in the cold. But we were lucky. Then there was a biased search — they demanded that we open the bags and turn over their contents, checking if we were carrying anything sanctioned. But still, we managed to leave Estonia before the time ran out - we entered Russian territory at twenty minutes to eleven in the evening. And most of those people who were standing in line behind our backs stayed the night on the street," concludes Alexander Kovalev, who is currently visiting relatives in St. Petersburg.
Under the indifferent gaze of Estonian officials
Those who have already crossed the border share their experiences in specialized groups with those who have yet to do so. These reviews, as a rule, are such that the faint-hearted people may, perhaps, be scared away from such a "feat". So, Lyudmila Bauge, a resident of Finland, reported: "We got in line on December 19 at 15:00 — between the flagpoles and the letters NARVA. We defended the night and crossed the border at 8:30 a.m. on December 20, standing in the rain from 3:00 a.m. There was only one woman at baggage and bag control, instead of the usual two or three people." Those who passed the queue at the same time as her confirmed that for some reason only one border guard was working on the inspection of things that day.
At the same time, experienced people warn that any troubles and tricks can be expected from the Estonian border guards. Pensioner Natalia Berkovskaya, who visited her daughter and grandchildren living in Sweden with her visually impaired husband last year, reports that crossing the border back to Estonia cost her and her husband considerable stress. "After standing all night, they suddenly found out that we weren't here. A "polite" Estonian employee tried to kick her husband out of the queue. His words: "If you are disabled, stay at home!" My husband demanded to see the footage from the cameras: they found it, saw it, missed it..." the pensioner recalls.
Opposition Estonian public figure Andrei Zarenkov notes that the border crossing in Narva has turned into a torture chamber. "On peak days, 400 to 600 people gather at the border.: as they say, in an open field, without basic amenities. Children and the elderly are standing in the rain, wind, snow and ridicule of government officials who do not want to organize human conditions for crossing the border. Some perceive this as revenge, others as punishment for relatives living in Russia, and others as an example of a future European outpost for travelers. The round-the-clock operation of the crossing could solve the problem, but Estonia will do nothing. According to the opinion at the top, "normal" people do not go to Russia, because it's only necessary for Russians," says Zarenkov.
The Parliament and the Government of Estonia are constantly receiving urgent requests to restore order at the border. People suggest opening the border for night passes and increasing the number of employees at least during the Christmas holidays. A separate request is to put an end to the practice in which if even a minor "sanction" or at least €5 is found in someone's queue (it is forbidden to import euros into Russia), they can stop the entire queue and deal with such a "serious violation" for a long time. This creates huge delays.
It is also proposed to organize an electronic queue with coupons and install a terminal that issues a number and shows the estimated time of border crossing. In this case, people stuck in line, especially families with children, will not be forced to stand in the cold, snow or rain, but will be able to wait in a shopping mall or cafe. However, all such requests are pointedly ignored. "The problem is that our government is not interested in making the situation on the border more comfortable," Alexander Chaplygin, an opposition member of the Estonian parliament, sums up.
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
