This June, the PPA caught four men who had swum across the Narva River to Estonia. A month later, they detained an inflatable dinghy on Lake Lämmijärv with which 13 people from India had attempted to enter the country.

As a high fence continues to be erected along Estonia's so-called green border, people seeking to cross the border illegally and Estonia's eastern neighbor alike may start looking for new routes to cross.

PPA Deputy Director General Veiko Kommusaar noted that of the 338 kilometers of border Estonia shares with Russia, just 135 kilometers of it are on land.

"We're considering building water infrastructure on our eastern border as part of a pilot project," Kommusaar said. "We've looked all over the world to see what potential solutions exist."

The police have picked out two solutions for testing. The first is a long chain of interconnected buoys anchored to the bottom of the body of water.

"The system is designed so that if someone tries to cross this water infrastructure, there won't be much left of their boat or vehicle," the deputy director general explained, adding that buoys of different sizes can be used. "In very challenging areas, there even buoy systems with cutting blades on them."

Buoys cannot be climbed over either, as they rotate easily in the water.

"You can't grab onto them from anywhere," he noted. "And they push the person back to the side they came from."

In summer 2023, the state of Texas installed a similar, several-hundred-meter-long chain of buoys in the Rio Grande, the border river between the United States and Mexico. The Joe Biden administration attempted to block its installation, arguing that it obstructs boat traffic on the river, but the courts sided with the state.

The second possible solution is essentially a floating fence on pontoons.

"If there's no water in parts of the riverbed for part of the year, it essentially acts like a regular fence," Kommusaar described. "And when water returns to that area, it lifts the infrastructure up." He said that this type of solution could be well suited for the dry riverbed of the Narva River, for example.

Surviving the winter

The PPA has a budget of €1 million for the pilot project, which will last up to three years.

The deputy director general emphasized that it's still to early to decide whether Estonia's entire water border will be equipped with floating infrastructure in the future.

"That's why various testing is needed – to thoroughly try out and see whether these solutions are even of any help," he said.

Among other factors, the agency hopes these trials will determine which systems are suitable for fast-flowing rivers.

"A third and no less important question is what happens to them during the winter, and whether it's possible to use them during the winter without needing to remove them," Kommusaar said. "And whether they can withstand ice conditions."

To this end, Estonia could serve as a sort of test lab, he added.

"If we find a good solution here that works in a water environment, then I believe our neighbors will be similarly interested," the PPA deputy chief said.

Trials for the floating solutions will begin next year, focusing on spots where crossing the border is easier.

"We're talking about places where people who decide to cross the border illegally could do so quickly, leaving us as little time to respond as possible," Kommusaar said.

Along the transboundary Narva River, one focus will be the dry riverbed.

"The other area is more around Lake Lämmijärv and Värska, where there are also shallow and narrow spots where it's possible to cross the border quickly by boat or even by swimming," he added.

More reliable border marker

To date, the PPA has positioned border marker buoys in Estonia's transboundary bodies of water. These are intended to be navigation markers for boaters, however, to ensure they don't accidentally cross into foreign territory.

Overnight into May 23, Russian border guards stole 24 buoys from the Narva River – which Estonia still hasn't gotten back. Russia claims the buoys were located in its territory. According to Estonian authorities, however, this is not true.

After learning of the theft, Estonia proposed a joint Estonian-Russian survey of the Narva riverbed, however Russia made this conditional on the ratification of the border treaty.

In August, Minister of Foreign Affairs Margus Tsahkna (Eesti 200) stated that Russia's response was not appropriate.

Asked whether the floating border infrastructure to be trialed could one day replace these buoys, Kommusaar replied that it's certainly one solution for unambiguously marking the border, and that the boundary marked along the water would be clearly understandable for everyone.

Even so, he stressed that the fast-flowing Narva River is not the focus of this pilot project.

The PPA pulls the buoys currently used on the Narva River out of the water ahead of winter. According to Kommusaar, it's up to diplomats whether buoys will be reinstalled next spring at the locations from which Russia stolen them earlier this year.

"But it's certainly in the interest of our institution not to create gray areas," he acknowledged. "And both from the perspective of illegal border crossings and the context of safe navigation, it's crucial that the border is marked for us, and that everyone knows where and what is allowed."

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