Located about halfway between Estonia's Koidula and Luhamaa border checkpoints, some 12 hectares of state-owned land in the Setomaa Municipality village of Marinova is currently located outside of Estonia's already completed new border infrastructure. Adjacent to this is Marinova Forest, a nearly 69-hectare tract of land that had likewise initially been slated to be transferred to Russia.

While this land currently remains Estonian territory, signs demarcating the border regime zone nonetheless prohibit access to it.

"The concern is that this land is either no longer guarded at all, or is that Estonia or not behind here?" said local resident Vello Pai. "Even so, the state should rent it out or log [timber] here itself; there should be plenty of forest."

"The border is marked simply there, and a 10-meter strip has been cleared," said Paavo Mikson, chief of the Police and Border Guard Board's (PPA) Piusa Border Guard Station. "Typically the border strip is 40 meters wide, but that wide of a strip wasn't cleared here. But in terms of guarding [the border], everything is the same; there is a patrol path. The border is demarcated and we have an overview of what's going on at the border."

In 2005, Estonia and Russia reached an agreement for smoothing out parts of the course of their shared border. Under this agreement, ratification of the new border treaty would have given Estonia the Saatse Boot and Lutepää Triangle, two tracts of territory currently under Russian control that bisect Värska-Saatse Road and have effectively made the inhabited village of Lutepää a domestic enclave. In exchange, Estonia would have ceded, among other land, Marinova Forest and 12 hectares of farmland.

In all, the two neighboring countries planned on swapping a combined 128.6 hectares of land. It is now clear, however, that the planned land exchange is off.

"The decision for years had been that we initially won't build them in," said PPA Deputy Director General Veiko Kommusaar. "Now a new decision has been made to build them in. So we'll start preparing that entire process. In essence, this concerns 18 different plots of land, where additions of varying lengths will have to be made. In terms of total land area, this will impact 180 hectares of land."

According to Kommusaar, this will increase the total cost of building out Estonia's eastern border by another €4 million. Complicating the situation further is the fact that two properties located in Marineva Forest, which is otherwise state-owned, are private properties.

"We'll conclude separate agreements with those whose land is on the far side of the border infrastructure to grant them controlled access to their property," he added.

New bypass road planned

Currently, according to a standing agreement between Estonia and Russia, Lutepää Triangle and Saatse Boot, the two sections of Russian-controlled territory through which Värska-Saatse Road crosses in Southeastern Estonia, are permitted to be crossed through by car or other moving form of transport; passage on foot as well as stopping or stepping out of one's vehicle while passing through these territories is strictly prohibited. This is also currently the only means of accessing the village of Lutepää, which is located directly between the two.

The Saatse area can be accessed by other roads fully within Estonian territory from the southwest and west, but plans are in the works for a new section of road that would bypass the Lutepää Triangle and Saatse Boot directly.

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