Estonians seek expanded nautical borders

TALLINN, Estonia, Dec. 30 (UPI) -- Some Estonian lawmakers want to extend their nation's boundary farther into the Gulf of Finland so it interferes with a controversial Russian pipeline.

The $2 billion, 744-mile pipeline will deliver Russian natural gas to Germany, bypassing the Baltic states and Poland. Leaders in those countries see the venture as a prelude to commodity-based blackmail, not dissimilar to what Ukraine is experiencing now in its conflict with the Kremlin over imports of natural gas. Moscow recently told Ukraine it was quadrupling the price Ukraine had to pay for its heating fuel.

Igor Gryazin of Estonia's ruling Reform Party and former Prime Minister Juhan Parts are lobbying for their nation's border to be extended three miles out, thus encompassing the area where the pipeline will run and "resist the threat to the atmosphere and safety that will accompany the construction of the North European Gas Pipeline," the pair wrote in a recent article.

Under a 1982 U.N. convention on sea rights, Estonia can extend its territorial waters to the point halfway between the Estonian and Finnish shores.

The efforts of Gryazin and Parts are given little chance of success, Kommersant said Friday.