There’s a saying in Estonian: when you’re drowning, it’s your responsibility to save yourself. Our European allies are not listening to us (again) and a #visaban was not agreed last week. Now it’s time for us on the border to take regional action. 1/7
We have tried making the moral, ethical, and political arguments to get a #visaban. Many, @minna_alander in particular, have explained in detail what the current situation is like on the border: 2/7
https://twitter.com/minna_alander/status/1565581615480410114?s=20&t=_KwkDCjwEyGd74qtZzIZOg
The EU has left the implementation of its sanctions policy up to us on the border. While some enter via land routes from Kaliningrad or by plane via Turkey, the vast majority of Russians enter the EU via Finland and Estonia. It is up to our border agents to defend the EU.
The Schengen Treaty allows us to suspend border crossings to protect public order / national security. When the Russian state is threatening us with chemical weapons akin to those used by their “tourists” in Salisbury, it’s not exactly a difficult case to make 4/7 
It’s reasonable for us to expect solidarity from other EU member states but the moment has probably come to take charge. Afterall, the EU is known for its inertia. The Baltic states and Poland have repeatedly proven that we are right about Russia. We are also right this time.
If it once again takes Europe a little bit longer to realise this, we can’t exactly be surprised. But Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland together can take action. We need a regional initiative to close the border to all Schengen tourist visas. 6/7
My article in Estonian: err.ee/1608705349/kar…
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