Since the journey constituted an illegal crossing of the Estonian border, the Estonian officials handed the boat, together with its crew and passengers, over to their Russian counterparts on the lake itself.

The illegal crossing was detected by a radar observer at the Saatse Estonian border guard station, a spokesperson for the South Prefecture of the Estonian Police and Border Guard Board said.

After intercepting the boat and determining the citizenship of its complement, the Estonian Border Guards organized the handover with an assistant border liaison officer from the Russian border authority.

Lake Pskov ('Pihkva' in Estonian) is the southernmost of a chain of three lakes (the other two being Lake Peipus and Lake Lämmijärv) through which the bulk of Estonia's eastern border runs. Citizens of the Russian Federation holding a regular passport require a visa prior to entry to Estonia.