The Baltic nations of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania have officially disconnected from Russia’s electricity grid and integrated into the European Union’s system, severing Soviet-era ties amid heightened security concerns following suspected sabotage of subsea cables and pipelines. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen hailed this move as marking a new era of freedom for the region during a ceremony in Vilnius alongside the leaders of the three countries and the Polish president. “These chains of power lines linking you to hostile neighbours will be a thing of the past,” von der Leyen stated. The complex switch, years in the planning, gained momentum after Moscow’s annexation of Crimea in 2014 and its invasion of Ukraine in 2022, aiming to integrate the Baltic nations more closely with the EU and enhance regional energy security.
“This is freedom, freedom from threats, freedom from blackmail,” von der Leyen added, noting that the wider European continent is also liberating itself from the use of Russian natural gas. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy remarked that Kyiv had taken the same step in 2022, and now the Baltic states are also ridding themselves of this dependence. “Moscow will no longer be able to use energy as a weapon against the Baltic states,” he asserted. After disconnecting from the IPS/UPS network, established by the Soviet Union in the 1950s and now run by Russia, the Baltic nations cut cross-border high-voltage transmission lines in eastern Latvia, distributing pieces of chopped wire to enthusiastic bystanders as keepsakes.
The Baltic Sea region remains on high alert following power cable, telecom, and gas pipeline outages between the Baltics and Sweden or Finland, believed to have been caused by ships dragging anchors along the seabed after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Russia has denied any involvement. Poland and the Baltics have deployed navy assets, elite police units, and helicopters to monitor the area after an undersea power link from Finland to Estonia was damaged, while Lithuania’s military has begun drills to protect the overland connection to Poland. Analysts warn that any further damage to links could push power prices in the Baltics to levels not seen since the invasion of Ukraine, when energy prices soared. The IPS/UPS grid was the final remaining link to Russia for the three countries, which re-emerged as independent nations in the early 1990s after the fall of the Soviet Union and joined the European Union and NATO in 2004.
The three staunch supporters of Kyiv stopped purchasing power from Russia following Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine but have relied on the Russian grid to control frequencies and stabilize networks to avoid outages. Analysts note that maintaining a constant power supply requires a stable grid frequency, which can more easily be obtained over time in a large synchronized area such as Russia or continental Europe, compared to what the Baltics can do on their own. For Russia, the decoupling means its Kaliningrad exclave, located between Lithuania, Poland, and the Baltic Sea, is cut off from Russia’s main grid, leaving it to maintain its power system alone. The Kremlin stated it has taken all necessary measures to ensure uninterrupted, reliable operation in its electricity system, including the construction of several gas-fired power plants in Kaliningrad.
Source: Swifteradio.com
