Russia mysteriously deletes threat to redraw Baltic Sea border

Russia alarmed NATO allies by proposing to unilaterally redraw its border in the Baltic Sea, before withdrawing the bombshell text without offering an explanation.

The since-deleted draft decree authored by Russia’s defense ministry appeared on the government’s legal portal on Tuesday, and argued that the existing maritime border needed revising because it was established in 1985 on the basis of nautical charts now out of use.

The current border “does not allow the establishing of the external boundary of Russia’s internal waters and does not take into account the practice of establishing direct baselines by other states,” the decree read.

The changes, which the defense ministry proposed would enter into force in January next year, were aimed at crew on sea vessels as well as law enforcement and defense and security officials operating in the eastern Gulf of Finland.

Unsurprisingly, the plan riled Russia’s neighbors.

“Russia’s actions are seen as a deliberate, targeted, escalatory provocation to intimidate neighboring countries and their societies,” Lithuania’s foreign ministry told POLITICO in a statement. “This is further proof that Russia’s aggressive and revisionist policy is a threat to the security of neighboring countries and Europe as a whole.”

The statement added that it would be summoning a representative of Russia “for a full explanation.” 

Finland’s Prime Minister Petteri Orpo said that there had been no “contact” on the issue and his team had learned about the move from Russian media. 

“Finland acts as always: calmly and based on facts,” the statement said.   

Latvia’s Foreign Minister Baiba Braže said it was in touch with Finland, Lithuania and other Nordic and Baltic countries to "clarify the situation."

Seemingly trying to defuse tension, Russia’s news agencies TASS, Interfax and RIA all ran identical news articles Wednesday morning citing an unnamed military-diplomatic source as denying Russia’s intention to change the border.

“There has been and is no plan to revise the width of territorial waters, the economic zone, continental shelf off the mainland or lines of Russia’s border in the Baltic,” the source said. 

Speaking to journalists on Wednesday, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov denied the proposal was connected to Russia’s standoff with the West.

“No, there’s nothing political here, even though the political situation has changed since then [the time when the border was first established,]” he was cited as saying by the TASS news agency.

“Look at the escalation of tension, the level of confrontation, especially in the Baltic region. Of course that requires our relevant agencies to take the necessary steps to ensure our security.”

Several hours after his comment, the defense ministry proposal had been deleted from the government portal.

At the time of publication, Russian officials had yet to provide an explanation for the text’s mysterious disappearance.