Baltic nations count final hours to ending electricity ties to Russia
VILNIUS, Lithuania (AP) — Nearly 3 1/2 decades after leaving the Soviet Union, the Baltic countries of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania this weekend will flip a switch to end electricity-grid connections to neighboring Russia and Belarus — and turn to their European Union allies.
The severing of electricity ties to oil- and gas-rich Russia is steeped in geopolitical and symbolic significance. Work toward it sped up after Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered his troops to invade Ukraine three years ago, battering Moscow’s EU relations.
“This is physical disconnection from the last remaining element of our reliance on the Russian and Belarusian energy system,” Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda told The Associated Press in a recent interview.
EU chief Ursula von der Leyen and other dignitaries are expected at a ceremony on Sunday as a specially-made 9-meter (29.5-foot) tall clock in downtown Vilnius counts down the final seconds of the Baltic states’ electricity ties to Russia.
https://apnews.com/article/lithuania-baltics-russia-estonia-latvia-electricity-8a4da3b60cccf0c2fe7746496e941a71