Russian border guards detain Estonian boat
Russian border guards detained an Estonian boat together with the two people on board on Monday after the boat crossed the temporary Estonian-Russian border line on Lake Peipus illegally, Interfax reported. The boat was released within a few hours.
"A correctly calculated meeting point with the border breaching ship, the course and time of approach allowed us to block the vessel and to stop it without resistance," Interfax quoted a Russian border guard as saying.
The detained boat was escorted by a Russian border guard vessel to a nearby village in order to decide how to punish the two Estonians.
A spokesperson for the Estonian Police and Border Guard Board (PPA) told BNS on Wednesday evening that a radar observer at Mehikoorma discovered on Sept. 19 at approximately 1 p.m. that an Estonian vessel had illegally crossed the temporary border line from Estonia to Russia on Lake Lämmi.
The Estonian border guards communicated with their Russian counterparts and found out that the temporary border line was crossed by a motorboat carrying two male Estonian citizens, aged 37 and 48, said a PPA representative. On the same evening, the men and their boat were handed over to the border guards of Estonia's Mustvee Border Guard Station.
The two men, who were fined by the Russian border guards before being returned home on the same evening, stated that their illegal border crossing was the result of a navigational mistake.
Editor: Editor: Aili Vahtla
Source: BNS