The commander of the Estonian Navy, Commodore Jüri Saska, stated that the increased activity of Russian forces on the small island of Suursaari in the Gulf of Finland in the Baltic Sea is not surprising, writes ERR News.
On Thursday, the 9th of March, Saska said on the Estonian television program Aktuaalne kaamera that Suursaari is in a very advantageous place to place various surveillance equipment, radars, and other sensors. «They have also conducted exercises there in recent years, which is also no secret, both using helicopters and missile systems. This has all been common knowledge, and observable,» said the commander.
Saska’s predecessor in office, Igor Schvede, agreed with this opinion and mentioned that the island provides a good view of what is happening in the sea, and also gives an opportunity to observe developments on the land.
Last spring’s events on Snake Island in the Black Sea proved that such places are very important in warfare, and in peacetime, they can be used, for example, for meteorological observations. Such is the use of the island of Vaindlo, which is located near Suursaari and belongs to Estonia.
The Finnish broadcasting organization YIe has reported that the equipment located on Suursaari interferes with the operation of GPS equipment in the vicinity of the island, however, Saska stated that it is not clear whether the interference was actually caused by the Russian equipment located in Suursaari.
Information about disturbances has been received several times in recent years. However, Saska added that various anomalies are observed, such as the appearance of a mobile network in the middle of the sea. However, he called not to overestimate the importance of Suursaari: «At the end of the day, it’s just a rock in the middle of the sea, whose possession is useful and challenging. In the sense of how you hold and maintain it in a real-life situation, it is very comparable with Snake Island.»
Suursaari is located 180 kilometers west of St. Petersburg, and only 35 kilometers from the coast of Finland, but administratively belongs to the Kingisep district of the Leningrad region. After World War I, the island was part of Finland for a while, but during World War II, the Soviet Union occupied it again, and civilians were evacuated from the island.
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