Russian border guards detain 2 Estonian logisticians who had mistakenly crossed border

Near the Saatse border crossing, Russian border guards detained two logisticians of the Estonian Police and Border Guard Board Photo: Arvo Meeks

On Tuesday at around 3 p.m., near the Saatse border crossing, Russian border guards detained two logisticians of the Estonian Police and Border Guard Board who had mistakenly crossed the border while preparing for border maintenance work.

The logisticians had arrived at the Saatse border crossing in southeastern Estonia to look at the border section where maintenance work is planned.

Two of the three logisticians, men aged 61 and 57, mistakenly crossed the border into Russian territory on an ATV. Russian border guards detained the men near the border crossing shortly before 3 p.m., spokespeople for the Estonian Police and Border Guard Board said.

The logisticians had mistakenly chosen a patrol road on the Russian side instead of an asphalt road on the Estonian side to move around in the area of the border crossing point. They were on the Russian side by a few meters at the time of detention.

During the detention, the logisticians did not resist, and Russian border guards did not use force on them.

«Today's incident was a human error. At the moment, we are doing everything we can to get our employees back to Estonia as soon as possible,» said Vallo Koppel, head of the South Prefecture of the Police and Border Guard Board.

At 5 p.m., the Police and Border Guard Board invited a representative of the Russian border guard to a meeting of assistant border liaison officers at the Saatse border crossing point, where the border crossing was formally recorded. Unfortunately, they failed to agree on the immediate transfer of the employees of the Police and Border Guard Board to Estonia.

The two detained logisticians are not police officers but people working on an employment contract. They were wearing plainclothes and did not carry any special equipment.

President: Explanation by Estonia is solution to the border crossing through human error

Estonian President Alar Karis on Tuesday evening described the incident earlier in the day, in which two employees of the Estonian Police and Border Guard Board erroneously crossed the Estonian-Russian border, as a human error.

«A properly marked border is important so that local residents, and Police and Border Guard Board employees themselves, do not get lost. What happened today is a human error, the solution to which is an explanation on the part of Estonia and the release of our officials,» the president said.

«I hope that the two Police and Border Guard Board logisticians who crossed the border at the Saatse border crossing during border maintenance work will quickly return home to their families and colleagues,» said Karis.