Moscow: Russian border authorities on Thursday accused Estonia of seeking to move away from existing agreements with Moscow on the delimitation of Lake Chudskoye (Peipus) and the Narva River, warning that such actions could lead to border tension. In an interview with Russian state newspaper Rossiyskaya Gazeta, Vladimir Kulishov, first deputy director and head of the Border Service of Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB), said Estonia's initiatives were undermining long-standing arrangements on the shared waterways.

According to Anadolu Agency, Kulishov emphasized that the Estonian authorities are attempting to deviate from compliance with agreements on the delimitation of the water spaces of Lake Chudskoye and the Narva River. He stressed that Estonia's initiatives create conditions for conflict situations at the state border and negatively affect the practice of ensuring navigational safety on border water bodies. Specifically, Finland and Estonia have repeatedly changed border crossing procedures since 2022 unilaterally and under far-fetched pretexts.

Kulishov also mentioned that Finnish border guards have erected engineering barriers in locations not stipulated by the 1960 Soviet-Finnish agreement regulating the border procedures and handling of border incidents. He linked these developments to NATO's increased military presence on its eastern flank, noting that the concentration of North Atlantic Alliance forces is accompanied by attempts from neighboring states to revise established agreements on the state border regime and engage in provocative actions.

Moscow has been urging Helsinki and Tallinn to return to the proper implementation of international agreements, but there has been no constructive response from either side. The Russia-Estonia border stretches for more than 300 kilometers, partially running along the Narva River and Lake Chudskoye. The Narva River originates from the lake and flows into the Gulf of Finland, separating the Estonian city of Narva from the Russian town of Ivangorod in the Leningrad region.

Separately, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko warned that any attempts to blockade or seize the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad, cut off from Russia by the Baltic states, would lead to the gravest consequences for NATO. Grushko stated that the alliance has zero chances of carrying out such a scenario, emphasizing that Russia possesses all the necessary resources to respond.

Kaliningrad, Russia's Baltic exclave between Poland and Lithuania, has become an increasingly sensitive issue in relations between Moscow and NATO amid heightened tensions over the conflict in Ukraine and the alliance's expanded military activity on its eastern flank.