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Senator proposes introducing reciprocal measures to Estonia’s plans on Gulf of Finland

Konstantin Kosachev believes that Russia could impose strict control on ships from unfriendly countries navigating through the Northern Sea Route and in the straits of the Kuril Islands

MOSCOW, February 2. /TASS/. Russian Federation Council Deputy Speaker Konstantin Kosachev proposed introducing reciprocal measures in response to Estonia’s plans to impose restrictions on navigation in its territorial waters in the Gulf of Finland.

In particular, the senator believes that Russia could impose strict control on ships from unfriendly countries navigating through the Northern Sea Route and in the straits of the Kuril Islands.

"For the time being, we can think about developing reciprocal measures. For example, imposing contiguous zones along the Northern Sea Route and on the Kuril Islands so that ships from unfriendly countries are subjected to strict control. We must not tolerate unilateral and obviously illegal restrictions of a sanctions nature under any circumstances," the Senator said on his Telegram channel Thursday.

According to Kosachev, the potential decision of the Estonian government is not only obviously anti-Russian in nature, but also violates international maritime law.

Should such a decision be made, "Russia will be able to appeal the imposition of contiguous zones in the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, the UN International Court of Justice, the court of arbitration or the special court of arbitration.

"We will argue for our right of passage to our own territory along the median line," the Senator underscored.

He emphasized the 1958 UN Convention on the Territorial Sea and Contiguous Zone directly prohibits extension of the contiguous zone past the median line, if the shores of two states lie against each other or are adjacent to each other.

Earlier, the media reported that Tallinn is considering plans to impose a contiguous zone over 40 km away from the Estonian territorial sea’s baseline.