Estonia is considering closing the Narva border checkpoint with Russia overnight

It is planned that the Narva border control point would work every day from 7:00 a.m. to 10 p.m., and the new order would be valid indefinitely.

The Russian-Estonian border crossing – the Ivangorod point in front of Narva – has been closed to traffic since February by Russian decision. As a result, cases of border crossings in Estonia have significantly decreased: in January they were more than 170 thousand, and in February – about 108 thousand.

The number of overnight border crossings has reportedly almost halved, reaching around 13,000 in February.

The chief of the border guards, Veikos Komusaars, indicated that, taking into account all the circumstances, it would be best to close the Narva border checkpoint for the night.

“This decision is based on several factors. First, the number of people crossing the border at night has decreased significantly, so it is not appropriate to keep the border crossing open 24 hours a day. Second, we don’t think it’s fair that, at a time when Russia is waging a full-scale war against its neighbor and Estonia is advising against visiting Russia, the Police and Border Guard Board is spending Estonian taxpayers’ money to keep the Narva border crossing open 24/7. he said.

Estonian officials note that closing the border crossing point for the night does not mean that it will be left unattended. Officers would continue to patrol the area around the clock.

Jooseps Kaasikas, the Deputy Secretary General of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for internal security, said that the Ministry intends to send a proposal to the Government to change the working hours of the border checkpoint as soon as possible.

“We hope that a decision will be made in a couple of weeks, then we can introduce the new order from May,” he said.