Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania have relied on stability of Russia’s power grid since regaining independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. They, along with Belarus and Russia, make up the BRELL (Belarus, Russia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania) ring.
The three countries have received €1.6bn from EU for power grid infrastructure upgrades in order to decouple from the Russian grid by 2025.
Lithuania had been recently lobbying for an expedited split from the Russian grid by the beginning of 2024. Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas, however, told Reuters that Estonia will suffer the most from an earlier decoupling.
“I understand that Lithuania wants to have it faster, but the question is that… Estonia would pay the highest price for this in terms of the (cost) but also in terms of risks of blackouts,” said Kallas at the 2023 Vilnius Nato summit. As a compromise, the country would move the decoupling date to the beginning of 2025.
On Lithuanian radio, Rokas Masiulis, CEO of Lithuania’s grid operator Litgrid, responded to Kallas, saying: “We are dependent on Estonia, so if they don’t change their mind, sadly, it will happen according to their timetable (in early 2025).”
All three Baltic countries must divest from Russian grid reliance together, and while Litgrid will continue to lobby for an earlier decoupling, Lithuania and Latvia must abide by Estonia’s timeline.
Masiulis reasoned that the states decoupling from the Russian grid at the earliest opportunity was the right thing to do in order to oppose Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. He also added that he doesn’t “think it is the right choice to keep cooperating with the aggressor just because this saves a few cents”.
Kallas stated that the three Baltic states will declare their formal application to decouple from the BRELL ring in August 2024.
