Baltic countries escape from Russia and join the EU power grid

The Baltic countries of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania are now out of Russia’s power grid and joining the European Union network.

Plans for the moves that have been working since 2007 are considered essential to European security and were submitted in 2022 after a full-scale invasion of Russia’s Ukraine.

“History was made today,” EU chief Ursula von der Leyen said of the ceremony in the Lithuanian capital. “This is freedom, freedom from threats, freedom from scary mail.”

Polish President Andrze Duda will praise it as a “really iconic moment” and make the area “safe and more resilient.”

“This is the final step towards liberation from the realm of post-Soviet dependence,” he added.

The so-called Brell Power Grid, which represents Belarus, Russia, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, is almost entirely controlled by Moscow and has long been seen as vulnerability in the three Baltic countries.

Currently, NATO members have not purchased electricity from Russia since 2022, but due to their connection with the Brell grid, they relied on Moscow for the flow of energy.

In her speech, Von Der Leyen warned that NATO must pay attention to the possibility of Russia’s retaliation.

Pointing to the recent smart of alleged sabotage accidents involving power cables and pipelines in the Baltic Sea, she said, “There’s a pattern and you can’t ignore it.”

Over the past 18 months, at least 11 cables have been damaged running beneath the Baltic Sea. In a recent case, ships from the “shadow fleet” of Russian oil tankers were accused of undermining Estonia’s main link in the Gulf of Finland. The Kremlin declined to comment.

Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda called for sanctions on Russia’s shadow fleet, saying the recent incident was “a great concern.”

NATO has not directly criticized Russia, but has responded by launching a new patrol mission for the region called Sentry of the Baltic Sea.

In total, around 1.6 billion euros (£1.333 billion) have been invested in the project, moving three countries to the EU’s grid with funds primarily provided by the EU.

The transition took place over two days, with the three countries disconnected from the Russian grid on Saturday morning, operating as “energy islands” for about 24 hours, connecting to the EU grid on Sunday.

German Minister of Energy, Galszchenko, Germany, praised it as “an event of importance for Europe as a whole.”