Pevkur: Cost of Marking Border Estimated at €200,000 a Kilometer
Interior Minister Hanno Pevkur says the cost of properly clearing and marking the Estonian-Russian land border in the southeast could top 32 million euros.
Clearing brush is estimated at 45,000 euros per kilometer and marking the border would cost over four times that, he told ERR radio.
He said ›rush clearing would last "until they are completed." He said surveillance equipment and personal equipment would also be upgraded and improved.
He said the lack of a ratified new border treaty between Estonia and Russia would not be a hindrance. Currently the border is regulated by a 1920 treaty that Russia violated when the USSR annexed Estonia in 1940 and added parts of Estonia to Russia in 1945.
"If there is no border treaty by the time the border is cleared of brush, we will unilaterally decide whether and how we can demarcate the border and where - if needed - physical barriers are placed," he said.