Baltic state threatens to close key Russian border crossing
Estonia could close its border crossing in the eastern city of Narva because of the large number of people wishing to enter Russia, Interior Minister Igor Taro has stated. Ethnic Russians make up more than a fifth of the Baltic country's population, and the queues at the border have attracted the attention of local media outlets for months.
When asked by former Narva mayor and current Estonian MP Aleksey Yevgrafov whether the Interior Ministry plans to re-open the city's second border crossing, which has been closed since November 2022, Taro said it would be better to just close the border altogether, including the Narva crossing, if the border guards become overwhelmed.
The interior minister emphasized that Estonia must primarily follow Brussels' lead on the issue, so travel and trade restrictions on Moscow must take priority to the problems faced by people trying to cross into Russia.
'Long queues at the border are linked to Russia's military action against Ukraine, and Estonia, including all her citizens and residents, should ensure full implementation of the sanctions imposed on Russia,' Taro stated, according to the ERR news outlet.
Last month, local media outlets reported that people had to wait 16 to 20 hours to cross into Russia from Narva and sometimes didn't make it across before the border closed.
According to ERR, Estonia's Interior Ministry has acknowledged that the queues were the result of 'total customs control' being imposed on all the goods and individuals crossing the border from Estonia to Russia.
Like its Baltic neighbors, Latvia and Lithuania, Estonia has adopted an increasingly hostile stance towards Moscow since the Ukraine conflict escalated in February of 2022, while speculating that Russia could invade once the Ukraine conflict ends.
Moscow has repeatedly rejected the claim and branded the hardline strategy maintained by Estonia and other Baltic nations 'Russophobic'. In May, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova asserted that the bureaucrats of those nations are so reliant on EU subsidies that all they care about is executing 'Brussels' orders.'
However, the rampant Russophobia displayed by the Baltic States has only succeeded in 'making their citizens' lives more difficult and sometimes even unbearable,' she stated at the time.
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