On Monday, former Riigikogu member Olga Ivanova held a campaign event at Tallinn's Swissotel — a conference discussing how revoking voting rights from Russian citizens might affect voter turnout and election results.

According to Ivanova, she had invited four Latvian politicians to take part: Members of Parliament Svetlana Čulkova, Natalja Marčenko-Jodko and Igors Judins, as well as former MP and current Riga city councilor Aleksejs Roslikovs.

The politicians belong to Stabilitatei, a Eurosceptic party focused on promoting Russian minority rights, which holds 10 seats in Latvia's Saeima and five in the Riga City Council.

Also expected to attend was Antanas Kandrotas, a political activist from Lithuania who has previously been convicted of financial fraud.

That same day, it emerged that Estonia would not allow the planned guests to enter the country until October 20 — the day after the local elections.

Ivanova said that Judins, who had already arrived in Estonia, was detained somewhere in Tallinn and ordered to leave the country. The others were turned back near the border. In addition to Kandrotas, another person traveling with him — whom Ivanova said she never managed to meet — was also denied entry.

Ivanova described the situation as a surprise, saying she did not know why such a decision had been made. The event itself was not canceled, though turnout was low, she added.

She said she tried to answer the attendees' questions herself, but although a live broadcast had been planned, it failed due to technical issues.

According to Ivanova, the guests she invited stood for minority rights, but it was untrue that they were pro-Russian.

"If Latvia's minorities have a problem, then for [Interior Minister Igor] Taro it's a Kremlin agenda. Just like sometimes EKRE is a Kremlin agenda for him," Ivanova said.

Ministry of the Interior tight-lipped on details

The Ministry of the Interior declined to comment further on the entry bans. Veiko Pesur, a spokesperson for the ministry's communications department, confirmed that Estonia has indeed issued entry bans for the mentioned individuals until October 20.

"Unfortunately, due to personal data protection, we cannot provide any additional details about the entry bans," Pesur said.

He explained that a temporary entry ban on an EU citizen or their family member can be imposed only if there are justified grounds to believe the person poses a threat to public order, national security or public health.

Interior Minister Igor Taro (Eesti 200) said he did not know exactly what those banned from entry had planned to do in Estonia when the ministry decided to turn them away.

According to Taro, the decision was made as part of ensuring Estonia's security.

"The relevant agencies had information that these controversial politicians were coming here to support Russian propaganda and aggression," Taro said. "They have no relatives or family here and there was reason to believe they were not coming with good intentions."

Taro said the entry bans were signed by the ministry's deputy secretary general but added that he considered the decision reasonable.

"This is a sensitive period and pro-Russian figures want to interfere in domestic politics. I think it was a sensible decision," he said.

"We have to protect Estonian society from people who plan to push a negative agenda here," Taro continued. "In Ukraine, not enough was done early on to counter the pro-Russian circus," he added.

According to the minister, imposing entry bans is a fairly routine process in Estonia, but what made this case unprecedented was that a "pro-Russian group" had organized itself to appear in Estonia.

Taro noted that Estonia still remembers the Moldovan elections, where Russia tried to influence the process and that Russia remains a security threat to Estonia.

When asked whether Estonia could in the future also deny entry to politicians supporting Palestine, Taro said that such decisions would have to be based on a security assessment.

"It depends on what they've said before, what they intend to say and what their purpose here would be. Antisemitism in Europe is not something to ignore," he said.

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