Speaking to ETV morning show "Terevisioon," Oidsalu said: "This was a trolling operation," Oidsalu said "Inside Russian security structures, theft is habitual, but now they have stolen another country's property too."

Oidsalu noted that new maker buoys would need putting in place, and the latest incident, he said, could be good timing for the Estonian state to consider ways it can demonstrate its presence better, in the event of any repeat of the episode.

He said: "The Police and Border Guard Board could draw conclusions from this incident; it was a relatively harmless exercise on its own."

"How can this act be turned to our advantage in highlighting the Russian threat?" he went on.

Oidsalu said that Russia has found many ways to provoke Estonia over the three decades or so since Estonia regained its independence, and this incident is nothing new in that respect.

"We still haven't gotten back the presidential insignia, though they did eventually return the security officer," Oidsalu added, referencing previous incidents.

"In terms of severity, this episode scores a one, compared with a seven for the Kohver case."

Egert Belitšev, Director General of the Police and Border Guard Board (PPA), on Thursday called the removal of the buoys by Russian officials a "clear provocation."

Estonian border guards did not physically prevent the removal action, to avoid escalating the situation.

Interior minister approves PPA actions

Interior Minister Lauri Läänemets (SDE) spoke in support of the PPA's actions. "The police know what they are doing," he told Vikerraadio's morning show.

The minister added that the theft of the buoys was not a random act, though nor was it a particularly significant or complex event.

He said: "Imagine if someone had gone to Russian territory to retrieve the buoys, using force?"

"What would a warning shot like that have achieved? Right now, I believe Estonia has achieved an outcome where the entire Western world is looking at Russia. This is the correct outcome, from a foreign policy perspective," the minister added.

The interior minister said that Estonia will likely replace the misappropriated buoys.

Russian border guards removed 25 Buoys Thursday night

PPA Chief Egert Belitšev said that in 2023, the Russian Federation had notified Estonia that they did not agree with the locations of the buoys marking the shipping lane in the Narva River, but did not provide further explanations. The buoys had lain in the same locations for several years, though required replacements, maintenance etc.

Last week, the PPA began placing buoys at the set locations, but late night Wednesday, Russian border officials removed 25 of these.

Belitšev described this action as a clear provocation on the part of the Russian Federation, hence Estonian border guards not rising to that provocation and not using force to prevent the removal.

The use of force in this case would likely have entailed using firepower, at a distance.

The PPA leader reiterated that they are using diplomatic methods to recover the buoys.

As of Thursday, no new replacement buoys had been placed at the location of those which were misappropriated by Russia.

Eston Kohver is the cover name of an Internal Security Service (ISS) operative seized and detained by Russia's FSB nearly a decade ago, in disputed circumstances. While sentenced to 15 years imprisonment in Russia on espionage charges, Kohver was returned to Estonia after a year's incarceration, via a prisoner swap on the bridge over the Narva River, in September 2015.

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