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Day with the Border Guard- Narva, Estonia 2001I've been working on a series of stories about Estonia's geopolitical situation, particularly concerning, Russia, NATO and the European Union. At the moment, I'm still gathering information and interviewing people. I will most likely be going back to Estonia in the next couple of weeks, and possibly Russia, Latvia and Lithuania. It's a fascinating subject, and more complex than I imagined when I first got involved in the story. When I was in Tallinn in March, I contacted the Estonian Border Guards and asked for an interview. I said I was most concerned about the control of the Russian-Estonian border. I showed up for the interview at the Eesti Piirivalve Päevik headquarters on Toompea, near the Parliament building. To my surprise, I was given the services of an interpreter, a car and a driver, and was taken to the border to see the situation for myself. It was a long and exhausting day but very fruitful. Here are some photos I took. |
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This is part of the Border Guard facility at Narva-Jõesuu. It used to be a building for a Russian combat engineer unit. The Estonian military uses abandoned Russian facilities for the time being, because it's cheaper than building new ones. |
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Lunch for a border guard in Narva-Jõesuu. This was in March, when the temperature was between 0 and -10°C. The food is extremely heavy to supply a lot of calories. Lunch was a dill-vegetable soup, fish cake with potatoes and vegetables, meat and chicken patties, bread, milk and fruit juice. After eating, I felt like I'd gained five kilos. |
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A dam with a bridge on top, at Narva. The frozen bit is the Narva river. The near shore is Estonia, the far shore is Ivangorod in Russia. The dam-bridge spans the river which separates the two countries. |
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Captain Ivo Heinlaid, Border Guard Chief of Staff, and Leftenant Igor Sasko, Commander of the Narva District. These were my two guides in Narva. The Border Guard is under direction of the Interior Ministry, not the Defence Ministry. If there were a military crisis though, they would become a light reconnaissance battalion within the regular army. This paramilitary role is unusual by Western standards. Estonia has a very small army though, and has had to be creative to make the most of their resources. |
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Lake Peipsi (pronounced like the cola), still frozen in early spring. This large inland lake has Estonia on the western shore and Russia on the eastern. People occasionally smuggle goods and alcohol across the lake in boats. The Border Guard keeps a hovercraft nearby to investigate, and to rescue ice fishermen who get in trouble when the ice starts to melt. |
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A footbridge crossing the dry, frozen bed of the Narva River. The large building on the far shore is used by the Russian Border Guards. |
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This bridge was built by the Germans during the war and was partially destroyed during their retreat in 1944. People still used it until fairly recently. |
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Captain Heinlaid pointing out details of the Russian side. In the foreground is Marju Körts, my interpreter. The Estonian Border Guard is considered better paid and more professional than their Russian colleagues. The two sides do coöperate regularly to catch smugglers, and they seem to have a good working relationship. |
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Ivangorod, across the river. |
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Myself, by the frontier with Russia behind me. Everyone accompanied by the Border Guard needs to get in uniform if one goes to the frontier. The shiny triangle on my beltline is a fabric reflector the Border Guards use to identify each other at night. |
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Inside one of the roadway border control points. The headquarters facility is much more technically advanced. The Border Guard keeps watch over the northern end of Lake Peipsi with radars and thermal imagers. These are not so effective over land, so they make do with video. Radars also watch over the Baltic Sea coastlines. The Guard and the Navy keeps a fleet of small patrol cutters to investigate contacts. The Air Force is building an radar system called BaltNet, which will be integrated to the air defence nets of Latvia and Lithuania. Estonia has no fighters or missiles though, so it's not really clear what BaltNet can do besides watch the bad guys coming. There is a legal battle on right now between the French and the Americans, to decide who gets to sell the BaltNet radars to Estonia. |
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The Ivangorod Fortress, left, and the Narva Castle, right. These are two nearly identical fortresses built in the middle ages, staring at each other across the frontier. It is strange to see the Russian flag on one and the Estonian on the other. |