The mystery of the Russian document (that later disappeared) threatening to change borders in the eastern Baltic

Brussels – It was March 26, 2022, when, through an alleged publication error, the Russian autocrat Vladimir Putin made known to the world the long-term strategy that prompted Russia’s aggression against Ukraine. An article that for the first time demonstrated the Kremlin’s expansionist aims to overcome “the tragedy of 1991, that terrible catastrophe in our history” and that today, more than two years later, finds another confirmation in the draft of an official document from the Russian Defense Ministry.

The new proposal is to review Russia’s maritime border in the eastern Baltic Sea since, according to the Defense Ministry, the 1985 Soviet surveying of the border used nautical charts from the mid-20th century and, therefore, did not fully correspond to “more modern” map coordinates.

The proposed changes, which lack indications of how they would impact borders, were supposed to take effect in January 2025 and aimed at ship crews, law enforcement, and defense and security officials operating in Finland’s eastern Gulf. However, the draft was deleted yesterday (May 22) from the ministry’s website without further explanation after a wave of criticism and irritation from neighbors in the region, all NATO members ( Finland from 2023 and Sweden from March 2024).

 Alarm bells went off throughout the Baltic region, with the Foreign Ministers of Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Finland, and Sweden in contact to clarify the situation. “Russia’s actions are a deliberate and targeted provocation to intimidate neighboring countries and their societies,” the Lithuanian foreign ministry told Politico.  “This is further proof that Russia’s aggressive and revisionist policy is a threat to the security of neighboring countries and Europe as a whole.” The Finnish Premier, Petteri Orp, clarified that “there has been no contact” with Moscow regarding the issue. His Swedish counterpart, Ulf Kristersson, reiterated without mincing words that “Russia cannot unilaterally decide new borders.”