On the waterfront. Two Estonian men crossed a frozen lake to seek asylum in Russia—and found themselves in jail

“Through. :D:D:D:D:D.” This caption accompanied a photo of a pole in the middle of a snowy plain that appeared on Facebook on the morning of January 26, 2026. The author of this laconic post had just crossed the frozen lake of Lämmoe from Estonia into Russia.

The day before, CCTV cameras from the Estonian Police and Border Guard Board captured a bald, muscular man dragging some luggage: he had stepped onto the ice near the village of Mehikoorma on January 25 at 10:30 p.m.

This is the narrowest point of the Pskov-Chudskoye Lake Complex: just over a mile from shore to shore. During Soviet times, swimming competitions were held here. 

What the man had been doing all night is unclear. At 9:13 a.m., he crossed the control line and found himself in Russia. He then took out his phone, photographed the border sign, and posted it on Facebook. He managed to walk approximately 80 meters into Russian territory before border guards detained him.

A week later, on the night of February 1, another man walked onto the ice from the Estonian shore. A local border patrol rushed to the scene on snowmobiles and discovered tracks leading toward Russia. The following afternoon, Russian border guards informed them of the Estonian citizen who had crossed the border without documents.

Neither of the two intruders were ice fishermen, who sometimes accidentally cross the border on ice. Neither sought assistance from the Estonian embassy. According to the Police and Border Guard Board, both instead requested that Russia provide them with international protection. The Gdov District Court kept both in custody for illegal border crossing. At the end of March, their detention was extended until June 2.

Jalmar Ernits, head of the Mustvee Border Guard Station and a longtime border guard, calls this case extremely unusual.

The Estonian Ministry of Foreign Affairs told Eesti Ekspress that, as far as the agency knows, Estonian citizens very rarely seek asylum in Russia. It is impossible to say exactly how many such cases have occurred, as the international protection procedure does not require notification to the country of origin.

Ни один из двоих нарушителей не был любителем зимней рыбалки, которые иногда случайно переходят границу по льду. Ни один из них не обратился за помощью в эстонское посольство. По данным департамента полиции и погранохраны, вместо этого оба попросили Россию о международной защите. Гдовский районный суд заключил обоих под стражу по делу о незаконном пересечении границы (часть 1 статьи 322 УК). В конце марта арест им продлили до 2 июня.

Rando

At first glance, 42-year-old Rando’s biography looks like an ordinary criminal story. And when he appeared on the TV show “Märgatud Eestis” in January 2025, Rando introduced himself to host Taavi Libe as a “hardened criminal.”

This is confirmed by public court records. Between 2007 and 2012, he was convicted several times for drunken brawls, thefts, and armed robberies. Once, without apparent provocation, he attacked a stranger in a shopping mall and punched him in the face. However, on television, he claimed to have been “clean” for many years, working in construction.

Meanwhile, Rando had several women with special needs among his friends; he was convinced that the state and social workers were systematically robbing them. He contacted TV journalists to talk about this.

“Yes, he had this obsession. That was all he talked about,” a close friend of the man confirmed to Eesti Ekspress.

Shortly before the program aired, Rando began posting videos on social media accusing officials of covering up crimes. In one video, he claimed that all municipalities and social services in Estonia were controlled by “rats” who robbed the people under their care.

After the broadcast, Rando’s behavior became more aggressive. His videos now often ended with lengthy, expletive-laden tirades against the Estonian authorities and the social welfare system, vague threats, and paranoid conspiracy theories.

By December 2025, he was convinced that people with special needs were being sexually abused in Estonia and that the state was covering it up. The main focus of the video was a nursing home in the city of Valga, where, according to Rando, women were systematically raped.

His rants sometimes took on a pro-Russian tone. Rando promised that when “the Russians come,” he would hand them evidence of crimes committed by the “Estonian race,” and said he would travel to Russia.

Valga Regional Police Task Force Chief Kairi Ruus confirmed to Eesti Ekspress that although Rando had not filed a crime report, he had repeatedly called the municipality and the police to report sexual assault. Given the seriousness of his accusations, the police conducted an investigation but concluded that the crimes Rando alleged did not occur.

“On the contrary, it turned out that Rando himself had repeatedly encountered problems with the police and situations where his words or behaviour caused fear and discomfort in women. Those who handled these cases noticed a pattern: the other party was often in a vulnerable state or in need of help,” says Ruus.

The situation escalated on January 7, when Rando barged into the Valga municipal building and began excitedly expounding his theories. Arriving police asked him to leave the building; before he went, Rando declared that he was “Russian by nationality” and willing to seek justice in Russia.

Realising the man needed help, the police brought his condition to the attention of municipal officials. What happened next is unclear. Two and a half weeks later, Rando crossed the border.

According to his relatives, who agreed to speak with Eesti Ekspress, Rando was born with special needs. His condition was exacerbated by severe trauma in early childhood; his parents neglected him, and he grew up abandoned to his own devices.

Rando was admitted to a psychiatric clinic in the village of Jämejala several times, once spending more than two years there. At times, it seemed he was managing to rebuild his life—until he stopped taking his medication. After that, his condition worsened again. A relative of Rando’s says he has recently had to call an ambulance several times.

“As long as he doesn’t become violent and poses no danger to others, there are no grounds for forced treatment,” he recalls the explanation from the doctors who refused hospitalisation.

Rando is being held in Pretrial Detention Centre No. 1 (SIZO-1) in Pskov. It’s unknown how he is coping with the conditions there. A cellmate responded to Mediazona’s letter on his behalf, writing that the Estonian has been assigned a “state attorney” and asking for “a pack of cigarettes, tea, sugar, matches, coffee” and for him to contact his friends to “deposit money into the pretrial detention centre account.”

Danil

The second man who crossed the lake—on the night of February 1—was 25-year-old Danil from Peipsiääre Parish.

No one knows what prompted him to take this step. According to his mother, Danil took no belongings or documents with him, and his cell phone and passport were left on the table at home. They last saw each other on January 29.

Danil’s mother learned that her son was in Russian custody on criminal charges from journalists from Eesti Ekspress and Mediazona. “Neither the Estonian embassy in Russia nor the Russian embassy in Estonia have responded to my letters,” she said. The woman was also unable to write to her son in the pretrial detention centre: registering with the prison’s online email service required a SIM card from a Russian provider.

In recent years, Danil had become increasingly withdrawn, and his mother could not name anyone he communicated with other than his relatives. Born and having lived his entire life in Estonia, the young man didn’t speak Estonian, which hindered his employment. According to his mother, after losing his job for the last time, he began talking about moving to Russia.

His mother recalls trying to dissuade Danil; in any case, she explained to her son, leaving required preparation: saving up for the initial period and filing the necessary paperwork. “But no one really saw what was going on in his head,” she says, acknowledging that her son may have had mental health issues exacerbated by alcohol, although he had recently begun drinking less.

Danil did not respond to either of the two letters Mediazona sent to him at SIZO-1 in Pskov.

Russia

The article on illegal border crossing, under which the criminal cases against Rando and Danil were brought, carries a sentence of up to two years in prison. Svetlana Gannushkina, founder of the Civic Assistance Committee, who has provided legal assistance to refugees and migrants since 1990, says that foreigners convicted under this article face “a short prison sentence or a fine, followed by deportation.”

If the Estonians did indeed seek asylum in Russia, then by initiating criminal proceedings against them, the security forces directly violated Article 31 of the 1951 Refugee Convention, the human rights defender believes: “According to the 1951 Convention, if a person applies for asylum, they are relieved of liability for illegal border crossing. Thus, Article 31 is violated. There is a right to seek asylum, and it is enshrined in our Constitution, Article 63. If a person crosses the border and contacts the authorities and says they want asylum, then the procedure must begin. Everything else can only happen after this procedure.”

In a conversation with Mediazona, Gannushkina recalled another case in which people who came to Russia from the Baltic states due to difficulties learning the state language faced persecution: “There was a family, a father and daughter, who came from another Baltic country. They arrived as Russians, but they had problems there; they hadn’t learned the language. I don’t approve of this: the daughter is a grown woman, born there, and should have learned it, but one way or another, they wanted to build their lives in Russia. And suddenly the father ends up on the register of controlled persons. And no one explains why, or for what reason. Now they’ve become illegal immigrants.”

SIZO-1, or Pskov Prison Castle, where Rando and Danila are being held, is one of the oldest prisons in Russia.

“The cell windows in this early 19th-century building are located above head level, so you can’t go up to them and look outside. But there’s little desire to look out the window anyway: one set of bars on the inside, two on the outside, and then—quite a sight. The windows are about half a meter by half a meter, with a tiny square of light between the bars,” Pskov politician Lev Shlosberg, arrested last December on charges of spreading “fake news” about the Russian military, describes his cell in SIZO-1.

Another well-known local prisoner is Mikhail Loshchinin, who lived in Western Europe since the early 2000s and became the subject of a treason case when he came to Russia to visit his ailing father. Loshchinin writes that his cell is “quite cold,” but there are no mice or rats: “Lucky!”

However, prisoners are practically deprived of medical care and access to medication, he continues. “They're even refusing to give me vitamin supplements that would help slow the deterioration of the vitreous humor of the eye (one of my diagnoses). Medicine here is primarily designed to prevent suicide and maintain vital organs,” Loshchinin wrote in a letter. After the first reports about him appeared in independent Russian media, Loshchinin was transferred to solitary confinement.

On April 21, the Estonian Ministry of Foreign Affairs informed Eesti Ekspress that Rando, who had sought asylum in Russia, had changed his mind and turned to Estonian diplomats for help. It’s not yet known whether Danil has followed suit.

With Dmitry Shvets

Editor: Yegor Skovoroda