Luhamaa is a small area in

Setomaa Parish Setomaa Parish ( et, Setomaa vald) is a rural municipality of Estonia, in Võru County. It has a population of 3,369 (as of 1 January 2018) and an area of 463.1 km². Settlements There is one small borough (''alevik'') Värska and 156 vil ...

Võru County Võru County ( et, Võru maakond or ''Võrumaa''; vro, Võro maakund) is a county in southern Estonia. It is bordered by Valga County and Põlva County and is the only Estonian county bordering two countries - Latvia (Alūksne Municipality and ...

in southeastern

Estonia Estonia, formally the Republic of Estonia, is a country by the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, a ...

, on the Russian border. The Luhamaa border crossing is located on the

European route E77 European route E 77 is a part of the inter-European road system. This Class A intermediate north–south route is long and it connects the Baltic Sea with the central part of the continent. History In the version of the E-road network e ...

(road from

Pskov Pskov ( rus, Псков, a=pskov-ru.ogg, p=pskof; see also names in other languages) is a city in northwestern Russia and the administrative center of Pskov Oblast, located about east of the Estonian border, on the Velikaya River. Population ...

Riga Riga (; lv, Rīga , liv, Rīgõ) is the capital and largest city of Latvia and is home to 605,802 inhabitants which is a third of Latvia's population. The city lies on the Gulf of Riga at the mouth of the Daugava river where it meets the Ba ...

). The official Luhamaa village was abolished in 1997 by dividing the lands between Hindsa,

Määsi Määsi is a village in Setomaa Parish, Võru County in Estonia Estonia, formally the Republic of Estonia, is a country by the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to t ...

and Pruntova villages. The border crossing is officially located on the territory of Lütä village. On 5 September 2014

Eston Kohver Eston Kohver (born 1971) is an Estonian officer of the Estonian Internal Security Service who was detained by the Russian FSB on 5 September 2014 under disputed circumstances, creating a major political rift in Estonia–Russia relations. In Russ ...

, an Estonian counterintelligence officer, was kidnapped at gunpoint from the border checkpoint, while he was in the process of interdicting a crossborder crime. The abductors had jammed communications and used smoke grenades. The abducted officer was taken to Russia. Later on the same day the Russian

Federal Security Service The Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation (FSB) RF; rus, Федеральная служба безопасности Российской Федерации (ФСБ России), Federal'naya sluzhba bezopasnosti Rossiyskoy Feder ...

(FSB) claimed the responsibility for the abduction of the officer. The FSB, however, maintains that he was taken from within Russian territory.

References

Estonia–Russia border crossings Setomaa Parish Former villages in Estonia {{Võru-geo-stub