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Estonia shuts down checkpoint on Russian border until June 24 due to long queue

According to the newspaper, entry to Estonia remains open

VILNIUS, June 21. /TASS/. The Department of Police and Border Security of Estonia decided to suspend the operation of the ‘Narva 1’ checkpoint for exit until June 24 due to a large queue on the Russian border, the Postimees newspaper reported.

According to the newspaper, entry to Estonia remains open.

"Unfortunately, there are no signs that the actions of the Russian border control will improve in the nearest future. Because of that, the checkpoint remains closed for exit for the weekend, and we recommend people to cross the border in southern Estonia. We will monitor the situation ad and make further decisions," the newspaper quotes a border security official Eerik Purgel as saying.

On June 20, the Department shut down the ‘Narva 1’ checkpoint on the Russian border prematurely due to a large queue on the Russian border. According to the department, by 5 p.m. local time, there was a queue of about 500 people heading from Estonia to Russia.

On June 21, the checkpoint opened in accordance with the official schedule, at 7 a.m. By that time, a record-long queue had accumulated before it. According to the website, about 1,000 people could have been there at one point.

Currently, three checkpoints operate on the Russian-Estonian border, one of them - ‘Narva’ - operating only at daytime. The other two checkpoints - ‘Luhamaa’ and ‘Koidula’ - operate at full capacity.

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