The Ministry of the Interior has gathered examples of how unfriendly countries acquire important properties abroad. A memo highlights the mayor of Murmansk in Russia, whose mountain house overlooks an important Norwegian military base.

Interior Minister Lauri Läänemets (SDE) said Estonia must also deal with similar threats. "In Estonia, for example, there are apartments next to some very important sites where monitoring can be carried out. And there may also be some larger and more important properties," he noted.

However, when discussing Estonian cases, the ministry remains tight-lipped. But one example listed is the Kalevi Panorama residential complex built by Russian businessmen in Tallinn. Both the Filtri tee military campus and the Defense Forces Headquarters are within a few hundred meters of the 14-story apartment buildings.

The Police and Border Guard Board (PPA) has also been concerned about an apartment belonging to a Russian citizen next to one of the border guard cordons. "It allows you to keep track of the activities we do there," said Läänemets.

China also uses a similar technique. "The Chinese have bought thousands of properties around Japanese military installations," the minister said. "At some point, a pattern starts to emerge and you understand it, but then it is difficult or impossible to act. It has to be done now."

Rules would be more lenient for Russian citizens with a residence permit

The Ministry of the Interior hopes to present a plan for a draft law and amendments by the end of the year. "Preventing third-country nationals from buying real estate in Estonia around defense sites," Läänemets said. "They will lose that opportunity."

He said Russian and Belarusian citizens who have a permanent residence permit in Estonia could be treated a little differently.

He suggested that they should ask the state for permission to acquire property near important objects.

"In general, we trust everyone who lives permanently in Estonia. We know who they are, we know their behavior. But there could always be a situation where somebody from this country is cooperating with Russia or another country," said the interior minister.

Läänemets said any potential restrictions limiting the sale of real estate need more analysis. One way could be to give the state first refusal about certain properties. Then it could prevent certain transactions or even buy the proper itself.

"In Finland, for example, the state can also go into a transaction that took place several months earlier and say that the state's interest is greater here and the state will acquire it itself, even though the transaction has already taken place," Läänemets said. "To put it very simply, or to put it in general terms, such things are also planned to be implemented in Estonia."

How to define a national defense object?

Finland has already tightened its restrictions around land acquisition, and the ministry wants to follow suit. It believes the new rules should include a broad range of objects, not only nationally important sites.

"In Finland, the Russians at one point bought up important areas near the coast that had deeper water. Perhaps it was possible to approach them with larger ships. This means that in the future it would be possible to carry out operations there more easily," Läänemets said.

Estonia could also assess what kind of areas an adversary may consider strategically important.

A separate question is how to inform people about the restrictions as the list of national defense objects is a state secret.

"The simplest version here is to apply the authorization procedure. That is, every time a person from a third country wants to carry out a transaction, he or she has to obtain authorization," Läänemets said, suggesting the authorization process could be partly automated

"I cannot yet say exactly which version will be chosen, because the government discussed several options on Thursday," he added.

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