Baltic energy independence: Lithuania leads break from Russia
"Goodbye Russia, goodbye Lenin," says the President of Lithuania in a recording published on his social media account. In this humorous way, Gitanas Nauseda summed up his country's decision to disconnect from Russia's energy system.
Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia successfully synchronized their power systems with the continental European synchronous area on Sunday at 8:05 AM Eastern Time.
The moment of this historic event was recorded and published on the Lithuanian president's account on platform X. Gitanas Nauseda 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 ensued.
During Sunday's celebrations, Gitanas Nauseda assessed 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 of 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 Nauseda emphasized - "will contribute to stable synchronization operations and electricity trade, ensuring competitive prices for citizens and industry."
