Russia’s defense ministry is proposing to unilaterally change the country’s border in the Baltic Sea, seemingly flouting international maritime law and threatening its neighbors.
According to a draft decree published on the government’s legal portal Tuesday, Russia wants to revise the existing border, which was established in 1985 on the basis of nautical charts which are now out of use.
The current border “does not allow the establishing of the external boundary of Russia’s internal waters and does not take into account the practice of establishing direct baselines by other states,” the decree reads.
According to the text, the changes are aimed at crew on sea vessels as well as law enforcement and defense and security officials operating in the eastern Gulf of Finland.
Unsurprisingly, the plan has riled Russia’s neighbors.
“Russia’s actions are seen as a deliberate, targeted, escalatory provocation to intimidate neighboring countries and their societies,” Lithuania’s foreign ministry told POLITICO in a statement. “This is further proof that Russia’s aggressive and revisionist policy is a threat to the security of neighboring countries and Europe as a whole.”
The statement added that it would be summoning a representative of Russia “for a full explanation.”
Finland’s Prime Minister Petteri Orpo said that there had been no “contact” on the issue and his team had learned about the move from Russian media.
“Finland acts as always: calmly and based on facts,” the statement said.
Latvia’s Foreign Minister Baiba Braže said it was in touch with Finland, Lithuania and other Nordic and Baltic countries to “clarify the situation.”
Seemingly trying to defuse tension, Russia’s news agencies TASS, Interfax and RIA all ran identical news articles Wednesday morning citing an unnamed military-diplomatic source as denying Russia’s intention to change the border.
“There has been and is no plan to revise the width of territorial waters, the economic zone, continental shelf off the mainland or lines of Russia’s border in the Baltic,” the source said.
But according to the decree, if left up to Russia’s defense ministry, the border change would come into force in January next year.
Stuart Lau and Jacopo Barigazzi contributed to this report.
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