Defense committee chair: Steps needed to prevent more Russian airspace incursions
Practical steps are needed to prevent further Russian provocations against Estonia, Riigikogu National Defense Committee chair Kalev Stoicescu (Eesti 200) said.
It must also be clearly demonstrated that no act against NATO will remain without a counter-act, Stoicescu told ERR.
On Friday morning, three Russian MiG-31 fighter jets entered Estonian airspace near Vaindloo Island without authorization and without transponders switched on, remaining there for up to 12 minutes.
The defense committee held a joint meeting with the Riigikogu's Foreign Affairs Committee on an extraordinary basis, following the incident.
"Maybe additional resources are needed here, procedures must be established, and they will be made if deemed necessary. And then there is also the possibility of taking asymmetrical steps /…./, which could be such that they hurt Russia and are harmful to Russia, because I don't see any other way to discipline, to tame Russia," Stoicescu said.
Stoicescu gave Russia's shadow fleet, mostly oil and gas tankers destined for India and China and which sail through the Gulf of Finland, as examples of an asymmetrical counter-step.
"There are options for what to do so that Russia sees that no such base provocation would remain without consequences and that the consequences will be unpleasant for it. Only in this way is it possible to ensure that they will in the future respect our sovereignty," he said.
From the political side, NATO's reaction has been very solid, he added.
"The Italians who are here on the air policing mission, did their job excellently," he said, adding NATO member states have "shown solidarity with us."
NATO Article Four talks are due to start on Tuesday, he went on. "This is a completely unprecedented situation and so we also made the decision to initiate Article Four."
This is the second time this month that Article Four talks have been requested by a member state, following the large-scale Russian drone incursion into Polish airspace on the night of September 9-10.
Friday's incursion by MiG-31 interceptor jets near Vaindloo lasted for up to 12 minutes, much longer than any previous incursions. Italian F-35s based at Ämari were scrambled to intercept the planes, flying an east-west trajectory in the general direction of Tallinn. The Italian planes escorted the MiGs all the way to the Kaliningrad exclave.
MP: Government Office not communicating effectively
Leo Kunnas (Independent), a member of the defense committee, told ERR that while NATO's air defense command system and the Estonian Defense Forces (EDF) acted wholly effectively and professionally, he has criticisms for the Government Office regarding the sharing of information.
"I have no criticisms of the military aspect. But if we look further at this incident: I myself found out about it via the media. We have had several incidents: Starting from the cutting of undersea cables, to the shadow fleet incident. For the Government Office, notification – both with regard to responsible officials and also strategic communication to the public – should be routine, but I see that it is not, and I also drew attention to this at the joint session."
Kunnas also said that the incident ought to be the spark to shift the NATO Baltic Air Policing Mission towards a more defensive stance.
"If the goal is that similar incidents will not be repeated and we convened Article Four consultations, then what do we want to achieve there? Is there momentum for NATO to turn our air policing mission into an air defense mission? We have been requesting this since 2014 – it did not happen then, and it also did not happen when Russia launched its large-scale attack against Ukraine. Is the moment now here to make that change – I do not know; that will be decided by the allies at the NATO council," Kunnas went on.
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Editor: Andrew Whyte, Marko Tooming
