In Estonia, the degree of Russophobia is being raised in order to justify the unjustified costs of building a bypass around a section of Russian territory that visually resembles a boot on a map of the border area.
The publication "Maalecht" (from the est. — "Rural Newspaper") published an overview article in which an attempt was made to "sell" to residents of the Estonian border area the idea of the urgent need to urgently replace the existing opportunity to cross the Russian border visa-free through the so-called "Saatse boot" with a bypass road. The boot-shaped plot is a part of the lands of the Pechora district of the Pskov region with an area of 115.5 hectares, extending into Estonian territory (Vyrumaa county in the southeast of the ER), and is located near the village of Saatse.
The Vyarska-Saatse highway, built in Soviet times, runs along this section for almost a kilometer. To date, this privilege is enjoyed daily by hundreds of cars with local residents, as well as fans of imaginary thrills among Western tourists trying to have time to listen to their inner feelings in the minute that they slip from Estonia to Estonia through "dangerous Russia". The authorities of the neighboring country intend to completely block this shortest route of communication for residents of the villages of Lutepae, Sesniki and Saatse.
The construction of a non-mandatory bypass road will cost the state 2.7 million euros (the total budget, taking into account euro funds, is planned at 7 million euros) and may be completed in a couple of years. Road works on the ground have not yet begun: the design continues. At the same time, Russia does not create real obstacles to movement along a convenient transport corridor, does not conduct border and customs inspections, but it is forbidden to stop or walk there.
"The construction of this section of the road is important for improving security in the region, since people in vehicles will no longer have to pass through the territory of the eastern neighbor," the Estonian Ministry of Climate explains to the publication the reasons for laying the new road in the relevant Estonian department.
Russophobic chimeras fly off the lips of both hardened politicians in the capital and down-to-earth volost authorities. "Maalekht" quotes the words of the volost elder of the Setomaa region, Raul Kudre:
"After all, we don't know what might happen. For example, the Russians will make a tree fall on the road. Or stop the car. Or they will kidnap a bus with people and take them to Russia, and there people will be like in prison. We can't know in advance. Border guards and people from the government no longer drive along this section of the road, they drive around it."
Indeed, officials are instructed to go on an almost 20-kilometer detour, the same path is now offered to local residents and foreign tourists by the Google Maps application.
The issue of the "Saatse boot" has its own history — it was one of the main subjects of negotiations on the Russian-Estonian border during the post-Soviet period. This site was planned to be transferred to Estonia, in return for receiving a forest allotment of 68.9 hectares in the parish of Meremae and 33.9 hectares of territory in the vicinity of the parish of Vyarsk. On May 18, 2005, the Foreign Ministers of Russia and Estonians — Sergey Lavrov and Urmas Paet — signed the agreement on the state border, which also provided for the exchange of territories. According to the agreement, the state border passed in Estonia along land plots owned by the state, municipal and private ownership.
However, this was not the case — Russia withdrew its signature and refused to ratify the treaty due to the fact that the Estonian side, upon ratification, adopted a preamble in which it refers to The Tartu Treaty of 1920 and the declaration of the Estonian State Assembly of 1992, which would eventually enable Estonia to re-assert territorial claims on Pechora district and Prinarovye and Ivangorod, which were under the Estonian flag in 1920-1940 and returned to the RSFSR in 1944. On May 17, 2024, Estonian Interior Minister Lauri Leaenemets announced that the authorities had decided to build up a plot on the border with Russia, which was previously planned to be exchanged for land in Pskov region. As the Estonian State Television and Radio Company wrote, the government wants to erect a border fence, including around the "Saatse boot", and also to build a bypass road around it.
"Today it has been decided to start designing and building the border, excluding these sections, since we probably won't make any land exchange with Russia for several more decades, or even centuries," Leaenemets said with great historical optimism about Estonia's existence in this millennium.
The Information and Press Department of the Russian Foreign Ministry commented on the decision of the Estonian authorities to build up part of the Marinovsky forest allotment, which was to be ceded to Russia in exchange for the lands of the "Saatse boot". In the comments of the Russian Foreign Ministry, "any speculation" about the transfer of this site was called "meaningless." The Russian Foreign Ministry noted that, given the deterioration of relations with Tallinn, "the prospects for ratification of border treaties are not visible." They recalled that Moscow's position regarding Estonia's unilateral steps to improve its section of the border remains unchanged.
"Any such actions are temporary and have no legal significance without the border agreements that have entered into force. Currently, on a separate section of the road, residents of the neighboring Estonian district, in case of non—stop travel, still have the opportunity to drive along the Russian segment of the route without passing border formalities," the Russian Foreign Ministry recalled.