Is the Estonian form truth for those who travel abroad with questions about the “special operation in Ukraine”?

A photo of the questionnaire for Russian residents of Estonia traveling to the territory of Russia spread on the Internet. The questionnaire allegedly contains questions about the support of the “special military operation” of Russia in Ukraine. We checked whether this form really exists.

Photo of the questionnaire appeared in Telegram channels ("Solovyov","Military observer","Kovpak detachment"), social networksas well as in topic “Crossing the Estonia -> Russia border” at the popular travel forum “Vinsky Forum”. A Russian allegedly shared a photograph - an Estonian citizen named Sergei Filatov, judging by him filled questionnaire. Together with the photograph of the questionnaire, he sent a story about his experience in crossing the Russian-Estonian border according to the “new rules”: “I have been living in Estonia for seven years, there is Estonian citizenship, and he himself is from Tver. Once a year I am steadily traveling to relatives, this year I escaped only now. A new questionnaire is on the border. At the end, a bunch of questions about the attitude to his, how my relatives relate, whether I communicate with those who support, and so on. But the funny thing is that I have to return from the territory of the Russian Federation in 14 days, otherwise they will be deprived of a residence permit, and if you are a citizen, they will be fined for € 20,000. ” Messages about the new questionnaire also appeared in the English -language segment of Twitter, where users Compared The Estonian government with the Police of Thoughts from the novel by George Orwell “1984”.

In August 2022, Estonia complicated the rules of entry for Russians. Since August 18, it has become almost completely limited The entrance for Russian citizens with a real Estonian visa received for business or tourism. On the same day, a photo of the questionnaire for those who leave Estonia appeared, which the Russians who are permanently residing in Estonia and those who want to visit Russia are supposedly obliged to fill out. In the questionnaire, the applicant supposedly must answer the questions:

• Do you think the invasion of the Russian Federation in Ukraine is a crime?
• Do you maintain contact with those who approve of the invasion of the Russian Federation to Ukraine?
• Are you ready to confirm in writing that you do not approve of the aggression of the Russian Federation?
• Are you ready to abandon Russian citizenship?
• Are you ready to refuse trips to the Russian Federation?

Then follows a warning in Estonian and English with grammatical mistakes: “The present we inform you that, according to Article 8 of the Constitution of the Estonian Republic, if you leave the territory of the Russian Federation for 14 or more days without a good reason, you will be punished with a residence permit or a fine of up to € 20,000”. Apparently, the creator of this form had in mind that if the Russian does not return from Russia within 14 days, he will be deprived of an Estonian residence permit. At the same time, according to Sergei Filatov, punishments will be different for residents and citizens of Estonia. The resident who has not returned within 14 days will be deprived of a residence permit, and if you are a citizen, then they will be fined for € 20,000. The Twitter user Bad Baltic Takes, which refutes the misinformation of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, also indicated for numerous errors in the wording in Estonian.

In addition to grammatical errors, a number of signs indicate that the form was not created by the official body of Estonia. The coat of arms of Estonia was used in the form of the form, not emblem police department and border guard. In addition, it is strange that the form for Russian citizens is written in Estonian and English, and not in Russian. Many official sites of Estonia are available in Russian, English and Estonian, including website police department and border guard.

In the fake profile, at the ID-Card point, for some reason, instead of translation into English, an explanation of Estonian is indicated in brackets: “ID-KAART (Eesti Kodanikele)”. At the same time, the number of the ID card, which was indicated by Sergey Filatov (B3876682), does not correspond to the format of the numbers of Estonian ID cards. IN real cards In front of the seven -digit number there are two letters, and not one (for example, AS0002261).

Also, if you contact Article 8 Constitution Estonia, mentioned in the last paragraph of the questionnaire, then we will see that there is a right to the right of Estonia by birth and illegality of deprivation of Estonian citizenship due to personal views. In this article, as in the rest of the constitution, nothing is said about the visits of Estonian citizens to Russia.

Our colleagues-factory from the Estonian edition DELFI Contacted With the Estonian Department of Police and Border Guards and asked to comment on the photo profile. The speaker of the department Ilmar Caro replied that this form does not exist and could not exist. To obtain real information about the intersection of the Russian-Estonian border, he advised to turn to Official site police.

Judging by the date of publication, a photo of a fake questionnaire began to spread with post Russian Telegram channel "Ponomar". There the questionnaire was published completely, without painted personal data. An hour later, the same photo, but already with a smeared name and number ID was laid out by the military correspondent of Komsomolskaya Pravda, Alexander Kotz. True, ten minutes later he deleted his post. However, the TV presenter Vladimir Solovyov managed to share them - the post scored more than 240,000 views.

Thus, the questionnaire for those who leave Estonia is a fake, probably created for propaganda purposes by Russian pro-government anonymous Telegram channel.

Image on the cover: Telegram, Wikimedia Commons

Fake

What do our verdicts mean?

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