Now that Estonia has had its former Prime Minister Kaja Kallas elected as the EU’s High Commissioner for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy (effectively its foreign minister), they probably feel that they can be even more assertive in their obsessive hatred of Russia. Estonian Defense Forces Chief Andrus Merilo said on Sept. 18 that NATO controls the Gulf of Finland, and this has become the “neighbor’s problem.” He added: “Maritime defense is something where Finland and Estonia will continue to increase their cooperation, and perhaps we can develop more concrete plans on how, if necessary in the true sense of the word, to completely deny the enemy’s activities in the Baltic Sea.” According to Merilo, this can be done militarily and he said that countries were moving in this direction.
If Merilo seriously thinks that these countries can prevent access to the Baltic Sea by the Russian Baltic Fleet, stationed in Peter’s “Window to the West” in St. Petersburg, they are looking for trouble. The new Russian defense policy, as expressed in the week-long Oceans-2024 global maneuvers this month, clearly indicates that the country will never be “boxed in” by its Lilliputian neighbors, which seem to be inclined to make themselves the front line of a global conflict which such a policy will bring about.
Kremlin Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov underlined that maritime navigation in the Gulf of Finland will be ensured by international maritime law, despite Estonian’s plans to introduce a “contiguous zone” in the Gulf.
