‘A big chance for the populists’: Estonian city alert to the threat of Moscow in its mayoral election

Narva is separated from Russia by a 101-metre-wide river, traversed by a ‘Bridge of Friendship’ on which the Estonians have built a line of 3ft concrete dragons’ teeth and are constructing a heavy security gate. Photograph: Hendrik Osula/The Guardian

It was perhaps inevitable that a proposal to build a military base on the outskirts of Narva, Estonia’s third largest city, located directly on the country’s border with Russia, featured in this week’s TV debate among the candidates vying to be mayor.

Just days earlier, three MiG-31 Russian fighter jets had entered and stayed in Estonia’s airspace above the Gulf of Finland for 12 minutes, prompting the Estonian government to call rare article 4 consultations with Nato allies over a risk to “territorial integrity, political independence or security”.