Ice fishers from Estonia, Russia caught on wrong side of border on Lake Peipsi

Photo: Ove Maidla

An ice fisher from Estonia who had unintentionally crossed the border was detained by Russian border guards on the border lake between the two countries on Friday, whereas Estonian border guards detained and handed over to Russia a group of Russian ice fishermen for the same reason.

A man who had gone onto the ice of Lake Lammijärv, the central one of the three interconnected border lakes, on a snowmobile informed border guards on Friday he had run out of fuel after losing his way in heavy snowfall and thick fog. The man had no navigation equipment with him, spokespeople for the South prefecture of the Police and Border Guard Board told BNS.

It turned out the man had got stranded in a place situated four kilometers inside the territory of Russia. Border guards at the Mehikoorma base notified their Russian counterparts and headed on a snowmobile to the area closest to the person in distress.

Russian border guards recorded a misdemeanor and handed the man over to the Estonian crew, who brought him back to the mainland.

On the same evening the radar crew on Estonia's Piirissaar island established that a snowmobile had crossed the control line in the direction from Russia to Estonia. The snowmobile was then recorded repeatedly crossing the border in both directions. Estonian border guards dispatched to the vehicle detained three Russian citizens together with the snowmobile and two sleighs on its tow.

The Russian citizens said they had lost their way in bad weather as a result of having no navigation equipment.

The chief of the Mehikoorma border guard base, Arbo Sillaots, reminded all people going to fish on the border lakes to take a navigation device in a good technical condition with them to avoid violating the border. One also should adjust one's behavior to the weather forecast, he added.