“Russians are coming!” Or yachts as a threat to Estonian independence

May 27, 20192min read

March 23, 2019

On March 12 of this year, the Estonian Foreign Intelligence Department issued its regular review of threats to international security, in which 61 of the 67 pages of the Russian report are at once 61. What does it mean there, and why do we devote space and time to this issue?

“Russians are coming!” Or yachts as a threat to Estonian independence

An entire chapter of the report, for example, is devoted to the “practice of using civilian ships in the interests of safety”, which, using the example of the sail ship Mir in the summer of 2018 in Tallinn, describes how Russian civilian ships (including private sailing yachts) allegedly try (or they tried) to enter the waters where exercises are conducted by other states or “to enter the areas closed for navigation, under various pretexts,” for example, where military equipment is being tested or naval bases are located.

Especially the authors of the report do not like that during their visits to the ports of western countries the crews of these ships actively communicate with representatives of the local Russian communities. This, of course, is not a crime, but already very, very suspicious. “Otherwise, they will impose tola under the corset …” And it also amuses the passage about the presence in crews of Russian sailing yachts and training sailing ships of “polite people” leading preventive reconnaissance, so to speak, of the future theater.

What can I say? Paranoia is not deadly yet, but already very, very dangerous. It happened that the ministers jumped from the windows of the hospital with the words: “Russians are coming!”

It is especially disturbing that they are once again trying to use sport for political purposes. And the sport is sailing, initially uniting people of different nations. Moreover, the integrity of participation in the regattas of the STI training courts is put into question – that is, in those events where international friendship and mutual contacts between the crews of ships from different countries are especially appreciated.

Dirty political fussing around sailing is outrageous and insulting.

247 March 23, 2019 # 8864

Chief Editor