Russia’s plan to unilaterally change the borders with the Baltic states of the European Union could be more concrete than what has emerged so far. On Thursday 23 May, Moscow border guards removed most of the navigation buoys from the Estonian bank of the Narva river, which separates the two countries. Buoys serve to delimit navigation routes.
The removal of the buoys came a few days after rumors appeared in the Russian press about a bill aimed at redrawing the borders with the EU. The project, published by the Defense Ministry on its website (but removed shortly after), involves the expansion of Russia’s territorial waters in the eastern Baltic Sea, near the border with Lithuania and Finland.
Moscow would like to declare as its internal waters a part of the body of water east of the Gulf of Finland and near the cities of Baltiysk and Zelenogradsk, in the delicate exclave region of Kaliningrad. According to the Kremlin, the current geographical coordinates were recorded on the basis of marine navigation maps that were based on research that “does not fully correspond to the current geographical situation” and “does not allow determining the external border of internal waters” of Russia.
The project, as we said, has for the moment been removed from the Ministry of Defense website. But the Narva River episode seems to demonstrate that Moscow wants to get serious. “This incident – declared the EU High Representative for Foreign Policy, Josep Borrell – is part of a broader pattern of provocative behavior and hybrid actions by Russia, including on its maritime and land borders in the Sea region Baltic. Such actions are unacceptable. The European Union expects an explanation from Russia on the removal of the buoys and their immediate return”, concluded Borrell.
