Estonia threatens to completely close its border with Russia starting from next 1 December after its security services denounced a supposed attempt at sabotage against a weapons plant located near Tallinn. The Estonian prime minister, Kristen Michal, raised this Sunday the closure of border crossings as a response to the hybrid operations attributed to Moscow, while the foreign minister, Margus Tsahkna, went one step further by announcing a specific date for the closure.
“If Russia continues with its hybrid operations in Estonia, and we know that Russian intelligence services exploit border crossings to exert influence over people, we have to be prepared to reduce risks,” Michal warned in a statement. The head of the executive believes that closing the border would reduce threats against the Estonian population and would send a message of firmness in the face of attacks directed against the country’s military industry. In this regard, he has held talks with the interior minister, Igor Taro, whom he has tasked with preparing the necessary procedures to carry out the measure.
Estonia sets 1 December as the date to close its border with Russia
The Estonian foreign minister, Margus Tsahkna, announced through his account on the social network X that Estonia will close all border crossings with Russia starting from the 1 December, after the authorities of the Baltic country ensured that they have evidence linking Russian military intelligence to the attempted sabotage against a defense company.
“As a result of the clear evidence that the Russian military intelligence service, the GRU, ordered a sabotage attack against a company in Estonia’s defense sector, Estonia will close all border crossings between Estonia and Russia starting from 1 December. Russia must understand that hostile actions against Estonia have consequences,” Tsahkna said.
The head of Foreign Affairs has defended that attempts to intimidate or destabilize national security will not go unanswered and has assured that the shutdown would make it possible to reduce Russia’s ability to develop hostile activities in Estonian territory, in addition to strengthening controls intended to prevent international sanctions against Moscow from being evaded. Tsahkna has explained that he has already informed his counterparts in Finland, Latvia and Lithuania of the decision, although the Minister of the Interior has specified that the Government will formally debate the measure next week.
Eight detained for alleged sabotage against a drone factory
The threat of a shutdown comes after the General Prosecutor’s Office of Estonia announced this Sunday the detention of eight people linked to an alleged attempt to sabotage a military equipment factory belonging to Threod, located in Viimsi, near the capital, Tallinn. According to preliminary investigations, the incident occurred during the early hours of Saturday, when the company’s security personnel managed to prevent the attackers from setting fire to the facilities.
The eight suspects, residents of Latvia and whose nationality has not been revealed, were arrested in a joint operation by the Security Police and the Anti-Corruption Police. The Prosecutor’s Office has requested precautionary measures for five of them while the investigation continues into the possible involvement of Russian secret services in the organization of the attack.
The head of Estonia’s Security Police, Margo Palloson, has said that counterintelligence services believe that the sabotage attempt was coordinated by the Main Directorate of Intelligence of the Russian General Staff, known as the GRU. “This was another attempt by Russia to organize an act of sabotage in Estonia,” the police official said in statements collected by public radio and television ERR.
The attack caused no victims and the factory’s production capacity has not been affected, although the facilities suffered material damage. Palloson has warned that, if those responsible had managed to carry out their plans, the consequences for the company would have been considerably more serious.
A strategic company for Estonia’s military industry
The affected company, Threod, specializes in the manufacturing of unmanned aerial systems, including long-range reconnaissance and attack drones, a technology of growing strategic importance in the current European security context and in the war in Ukraine.
This is not the first incident of this kind reported by Estonian authorities. Last September, another fire was recorded at a factory of the company Milrem Robotics, dedicated to the development of military technology, which the country’s security services also attributed to Russian intelligence operations. The repetition of these episodes has increased the Government of Tallinn’s concern about the possibility that Moscow is intensifying its sabotage operations against defense-linked infrastructure.
What border steps would Estonia close and how would it affect the European Union
Currently, Estonia keeps open three land border crossings with Russia: Narva, Luhamaa and Koidula, which allow the transit of pedestrians and certain goods during a limited schedule of 12 hours a day. The Narva crossing is one of the most important connection points between the two countries and records especially high activity during the summer months and New Year’s holidays.
The closure of these facilities would mean a new tightening of land access restrictions to Russia from the European Union, in a context of growing tension between Moscow and the Baltic countries since the start of the large-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Finland already carried out the complete closure of its land border with Russia in November 2023, a measure that it justified on security grounds and due to the arrival of migrants at its border crossings. Since then, Estonia and Latvia have maintained some of the main land routes that are still operating between the European Union and Russian territory, apart from the connections with the Kaliningrad enclave, located between Poland and Lithuania.
If the announced closure is confirmed for December 1, Estonia would eliminate its open land border crossings with Russia, a decision with consequences for transportation, authorized trade, and the movement of citizens between both countries. The Estonian government will have to clarify during the coming days the definitive scope of the restrictions and the possible exceptions, amid an escalation of tensions over hybrid warfare activities that European countries attribute to Moscow.