A suspected Russian drone crashes into a power plant – and now demands for autonomy have emerged. In the Baltics, memories of Crimea and Donbass are awakened.
March 26, 2026, 9:09 p.mMarch 26, 2026, 9:09 p.m
Paul Flückiger, Warsaw / ch media
At first glance, there are only two scratches left by a drone on a red chimney at the Narva power station. The power plant management said the drone came from Russian airspace from the east and did not cause any damage and did not injure anyone. But if it was actually a Russian drone, the alarm should be raised.
Estonia has been fearful of possible Russian aggression for years.Image: keystone
“According to everything we know so far, the drone was not directed against Estonia,” said the country’s top prosecutor, Astrid Asi, on Wednesday. But further investigations would be carried out, she said. The Estonian government nevertheless immediately called an emergency meeting in the capital Tallinn, 200 kilometers to the west.
This is certainly the case, as just a few days ago a previously unknown pro-Russian autonomy group called “From Narva to Püssi” made a name for itself in Estonia. The group had called for the autonomy of the Idu-Vira border region on the three social media channels Telegram, vKontakte and TikTok, particularly among Estonia’s population of Russian origin, at least one in four of the 1.3 million inhabitants. The previously unknown group claimed that the identity of the Russian-speaking majority of the population in this area was at risk.
Narva is the regional capital, located directly on the Russian border on the river of the same name, with just over 50,000 inhabitants. 85 to 95 percent of them are of Russian descent.
The accounts on the three social media sites would be nothing special if the Russian war against Ukraine had not started in the same way. After the victorious Maidan Revolution, similar accounts appeared in Donbass and Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula. Nobody took this seriously at the time, until in March 2014 “green men”, Russian special forces without uniform badges, suddenly appeared in Crimea and Donbass.
The old town of the Estonian capital Tallinn.Image: keystone
The Ukrainian Crimea was then taken over by Russia without a shot and was annexed and annexed to Russia in April 2014. In Donbass, a pro-Russian autonomous “Donetsk People’s Republic” (DNR) and a “Luhansk People’s Republic” (LNR) were proclaimed at practically the same time.
The two pro-Russian people’s republics were soon led by Russians. They occupied town halls and government buildings, formed their own army and began fighting against the Ukrainian troops sent there from Kiev. The Russian invasion of Ukraine began not on February 24, 2022 but in April 2014, a fact that is all too often forgotten in the West.
Familiar tactic
As in eastern Ukraine, pro-Russian autonomists in the Estonian administrative unit Idu-Vira are now claiming that the Russian language and identity are at risk. The group “From Narva to Püssi” is therefore calling for autonomy for the Idu-Vira area.
“Such tactics are often used to cause confusion and question social cohesion,” warns Marta Tuul, a representative of the Estonian Internal Security Service (ISS). “It is a cheap method of provoking and frightening society,” Tuul told the Baltic online portal Delfi. Tuul announced a criminal investigation.
Politicians are also alarmed. Liberal Prime Minister Kristen Michal warned of a division in society. Foreign Minister Margus Tsachna tweeted: “Stay calm and vigilant!” This is the best way to counter such activities. (aargauerzeitung.ch)