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Russia closes border rail crossings amid Baltic tensions · INSIGHT TODAY

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Meanwhile, Russian state media have announced the closure of railway
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: border crossings with some of its European neighbors what appears
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: to be an escalation of tension in the Baltic region.
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  Speaker 1: According to those media reports from today of rail movements
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  Speaker 1: of people and goods are to be suspended at several
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  Speaker 1: border crossings on Russia's several crossings on Russia's border with Finland,
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  Speaker 1: Estonia and Latvia. No reason for the suspensions being given
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  Speaker 1: some of the rail lines were being used to export
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  Speaker 1: Russian fertilizer. That are now few open connections between Russia
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  Speaker 1: and the European Union, as road crossings are limited and
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  Speaker 1: direct flights are still suspended well. Doctor Artist Pabriks is
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  Speaker 1: chairman of the Northern europe Policy Center for Defense and Security.
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  Speaker 1: He's a former member of the European partner A Parliament
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  Speaker 1: and has held at various positions within the government of Latvia,
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  Speaker 1: including Deputy Prime Minister, defense Minister and Foreign Minister. Welcome
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  Speaker 1: to DW. How significant a move do you think this is?
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  Speaker 1: I mean, are these crossings much used.
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  Speaker 2: Currently? We do not know the motivation behind the Russian choice,
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  Speaker 2: but I can say that those crossings which they decided
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  Speaker 2: to close. They were not very intensively used, so currently
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  Speaker 2: I don't think it will affect any side of the
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  Speaker 2: border very much. But obviously this is some kind of
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  Speaker 2: either political move or there is still something behind that.
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  Speaker 1: All right, And as you say, no reason given what
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  Speaker 1: would be your best guess then as to why this
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  Speaker 1: is happening, Well.
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  Speaker 2: Since Russia has not been a trustful partner of international
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  Speaker 2: community for a very long time. Of course, there are
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  Speaker 2: different types of speculations. The thing is that they did
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  Speaker 2: regarding Latvia, Estonia and Finland, but obviously not towards Lithnia
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  Speaker 2: because that would cut away the former Kunningsberg region which
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  Speaker 2: is now called Cleiningrad. But we also could suspect that
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  Speaker 2: this is some part of hybrid activities against Europe at large,
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  Speaker 2: and possibly in Latvian case that could be also used
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  Speaker 2: in internal political discourse here because in a few months
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  Speaker 2: we would have a parliamentary elections.
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  Speaker 1: Right, I'm struggling though to see how that would be
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  Speaker 1: significant given as you say, these crossings are not much used.
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  Speaker 2: Well, first of all, it's a political move, and secondly,
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  Speaker 2: clearly Russians can decide also to close some others. So
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  Speaker 2: is this a part of some larger action, or it
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  Speaker 2: is just something technical they decided. I think nobody really
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  Speaker 2: knows a really good answer for this, because only speculations
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  Speaker 2: are around.
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  Speaker 1: That's fair enough. You mentioned Estonia, Finland, Latvia, They they're
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  Speaker 1: all reported to have raised concerns about Russian military activity
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  Speaker 1: and hybrid threats near their territory. What sort of things
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  Speaker 1: have been going on?
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  Speaker 2: Well, first of all, we must remember that Russia is
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  Speaker 2: almost fully controlling neighboring country Belarus, and Belarus is a
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  Speaker 2: stage two all hybrid and migrant organized migrant attacks against Poland,
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  Speaker 2: Lithanian Latvia. It was also experienced against Finland from the
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  Speaker 2: Russian side. This is one thing. Otherwise, of course, we
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  Speaker 2: always see some kind of possible suspicions moves from time
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  Speaker 2: to time, and also different type of hybrid attacks within countries.
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  Speaker 2: But that would not be only limited to the Baltic states.
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  Speaker 2: That could be targeted in any community in Europe which
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  Speaker 2: is less prepared perhaps than maybe border countries. So different
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  Speaker 2: kind of diversions, strategic communication activities, actions against individuals. I
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  Speaker 2: think the temperature is rising in general, and so we
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  Speaker 2: should be ready for a different type of activities also
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  Speaker 2: in future. We simply should be ready that Russia will
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  Speaker 2: escalate no matter what we do.
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  Speaker 1: And what we have you. I'd been interested in your
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  Speaker 1: thoughts on the story we've been running about how some
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  Speaker 1: of the commercial vessels from Russia's Shadow Fleet are now
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  Speaker 1: arming themselves with machine guns to discourage Western efforts to
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  Speaker 1: seize them. What do you make of those of that?
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  Speaker 2: Well, I think it is a psychological move against those
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  Speaker 2: who are trying or might attempt in future, to stop
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  Speaker 2: these illegal vessels, because we know that one thing is
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  Speaker 2: to declare sanctions, but other thing is to really efficiently
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  Speaker 2: enforce these sanctions. And we know that several countries like
• 5:12
  Speaker 2: Sweden have been enforcing these sanctions and also taking these
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  Speaker 2: ships and boarding these ships, while there have been some
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  Speaker 2: other European countries which have been abstaining from this. If
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  Speaker 2: we see such type of weaponry on the civilian vessels,
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  Speaker 2: which sometimes are not even running under the Russian flag,
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  Speaker 2: I don't think they can really abstruct somebody to stop
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  Speaker 2: It's not enough of physical or military power, but of
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  Speaker 2: course it gives some kind of a psychological message.
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  Speaker 1: Good talking to you, Thanks for joining us. Doctor Artist
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  Speaker 1: Pabriks from the Northern Europe Policy Center, thank you,