A document from the Russian Ministry of Defense proposed on Tuesday updating the coordinates of the maritime border in the Baltic, which yesterday caused concern but firm responses in the countries of the region. After a wave of reactions, the Kremlin yesterday denied any intention to review its borders in this northern European sea, a strategic point of great importance after Finland and Sweden have joined NATO.
The Russian Ministry of Defense proposed updating the list of points from which the width of the strip of territorial waters off the mainland coast and the islands of Russia in the Baltic is measured. In the document, published on the legal information portal of the Russian Government, it was noted that the current list of coordinates was approved in 1985 “by small-scale nautical charts” and requires changes, since it does not correspond to the modern geographical situation.
This claim, in the midst of the conflict with Ukraine, provoked critical reactions from the Western Baltic countries yesterday.
The Defense Ministers of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, meeting yesterday in the Lithuanian resort of Palanga, accused Russia of wanting to sow fear and confusion. “He’s testing us,” said Estonia’s Hannu Pevkur. The Latvian, Andris Spruds, argued for a united position and treating it as “a challenge to all of NATO.”
After Finland (April 2023) and Sweden (March 2024) joined the Alliance, the Baltic is a contact region between NATO and Russia. With the exception of the latter, all countries that have a coast are members of NATO: Denmark, Germany, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Finland and Sweden.
Specifically, the Russian ministry’s proposal spoke of the eastern area of ??the Gulf of Finland and the waters near the ports of Baltisk and Zelenogradsk, in the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad, between Poland and Lithuania.
The president of Latvia, Edgars Rinkevics, stated that the revision of the borders would be “an action to increase tension” in the region by Russia.
After the concern generated, Moscow responded yesterday through a diplomatic-military source, who denied to local agencies that Russia has plans to review its border, the width of its territorial waters and its economic zone in the Baltic. Kremlin spokesman Dimitri Peskov said “there is nothing political,” although he admitted that there is more tension in the Baltic than before and that “requires our departments to take measures to guarantee our security.”
