Putin’s Estonia provocation raises alarm bells in the Baltics

Russia can’t resist testing the Baltic waters.

Just a day after the the Kremlin’s defense ministry deleted a threat to redraw borders in the Baltic Sea earlier this week, Russian border guards removed more than 20 buoys on the Narva River — a waterway along the Estonian-Russian border. EU leaders condemned the move as an act of provocative behavior by Russia with its neighbors.

“This border incident is part of a broader pattern of hybrid actions by Russia, including on its maritime and land borders in the Baltic Sea region,” the EU’s chief diplomat Josep Borrell said in a statement Friday.

“The European Union expects an explanation by Russia about the removal of the buoys and their immediate return,” he said. Russia has yet to publicly comment.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has been carrying out a full-scale invasion of Ukraine since February 2022, and has stoked fear in other neighboring countries with revanchist posturing and hybrid mind games.

Each spring, Estonia and Russia install buoys on the Narva River to mark the border, Estonian border guard official Eerik Purgel told local media.

As the river bed changes over time, both countries have to revise the fairway every year.

"Since 2023, Russia does not agree with the Estonian positions regarding the placement of the buoys. We decided to install floating signs for the summer season according to the agreement of 2022, so they are necessary to avoid navigational errors," Purgel said.

This year, Russia reported that it does not agree with the locations of approximately half of the 250 border buoys. Estonia installed the buoys following the treaty on the state border and the agreement on the placement of buoys concluded between the border services in 2022. The first 50 buoys were installed on May 13, and Russia removed about half of them.  

Estonia has summoned the Russian ambassador to explain what it defined as a “provocative border incident."