Baltic nations cut power ties with Russia, embrace EU grid
"Goodbye Russia, goodbye Lenin," says the President of Lithuania in a recording published on his social media account. In this humorous manner, Gitanas Nausėda summed up his country's decision to disconnect from Russia's energy system.
Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia successfully synchronised their power systems with the continental European synchronous area on Sunday at 12:05 PM Greenwich Time.
The moment of this historic event was recorded and published on the Lithuanian president's account on the platform X. Gitanas Nausėda is seen speaking on the phone and, at some point, he quips: "Goodbye Russia, goodbye Lenin", which amuses the accompanying European leaders. Shortly afterwards, he announced that "it was a success" and applause followed.
During Sunday's celebrations, Gitanas Nausėda remarked that it was "a historic moment marking the end of a long journey undertaken by Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia".
From now on, we have achieved full energy independence. The vision of political pressure and blackmail is finally behind us. Lithuania, along with Latvia and Estonia, is taking part in the shared responsibility for frequency control, he said.
He stated that the next goal is to build important strategic electrical connections, including, by 2030, the completion of the Polish-Lithuanian project's Harmony Link, which—as Nausėda emphasised—"will contribute to stable synchronisation operations and electricity trade, ensuring competitive prices for citizens and industry".
